Why Loki?

MarkersMake

Somewhat overlooked in the discussion about the changes to OML is the fact that Loki is being removed from the 3* token pool to make room for Hawkguy. 

That's fine, really - someone has to be removed. But why Loki specifically? Did the devs hand-pick him? Is he the oldest one in the pool? Was he naughty? 

Because if Loki was removed because he's the oldest, then the 3* token pool eventually becomes a "latest 3*s" pool, which leads us into the same desert that the 4*s are currently in..

How about it, @brigby - can you find out for us what the logic is behind the 3* token pool changes? 

StreetPreacher

"AP generation is over-powered! Need more characters like Agent Venom with AP degeneration!" -d3

STOPTHIS

I believe Loki is one of the older characters. I think Spider-Man and Black Widow are the 2 oldest after Loki.

orbitalint

If I'm remembering the 3* pool correctly, they were handpicked by the devs when they introduced bonus heroes. Which I always found hilarious because Spiderman (probably the worst 3*) was put in there yet Magneto (one of the better ones) was left out. So, it wasn't play-ability that was driving their decisions completely. Name recognition probably played a big role.

The Herald

Magneto went out?! O.o

I didn't notice that.

Nearly got mine to max level. Should be fine with BH, but I hadn't even realised I was never going to see him in tokens!

bbigler

I bet they're going to do a 3* rotation in the pool

The Herald

No need! We have super awesome Vintage Heroic tokens during off-season!

Enjoy choking to death on 2* digging for them!

astrp3

I'm not sure they picked the 20 characters based on age. It included 14 of the top 16 characters from the holiday forum poll (all except Thor and Magneto), plus Thanos, who I'd imagine would have been in the top 16 if he'd been included. It's possible that the top characters coincide with the most recently released one, but seems unlikely to me.

Plus, I'd have thought that Spidey and Wolvie would have been released before Loki.

Of course, there are a couple of head-scratchers among the five lower-tier ones they included. Spidey makes sense to me, since, well...he's spidey (to an old fart like me, Spidey is still the quintessential Marvel superhero). But Squirrel Girl? Is she that popular (please say it ain't so). And Loki over Thor???

Jaedenkaal

Squirrel Girl and Daredevil are also odd includes for me. I guess they're more recognizable due to more recently being in prominent Marvel releases?

And they DID include mutants in the 20 (well ok. Cyclops and Wolverine) so I guess there's that.

The Herald

It's likely less bad than we like to joke, but it's easy to be pessimistic among the rest of the goings on in the game lately

TimGunn

Stop pretending like the 3 star pool is based on the newest 3 stars.  Vision, Quicksilver and Vision are all new!  Order was Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Bullseye, Dr. Strange, Thanos and Hawkguy

i mean, it is just a random pool of 3s in tokens vs. out of tokens.  so why not Loki?

Brigby

@MarkersMake Based on the information presented in the Power Gem Season Updates post, yes, it would appear that Loki is being removed because he is the oldest 3-Star in the current pool. He will be replaced by Hawkeye (Hawkguy)

jackstar0

Weird that Lightning Rounds don't change.

Nightglider1

Why not Loki?

Dormammu

It's not based on age, Loki was a launch character. The devs just hand picked them.

morph3us

Loki nerfed OML, and has gone into hiding.

MarkersMake

Thanks, @Brigby.

Ok, so if Loki is gone from tokens now, the following is the list of 4* characters that are no longer available directly in normal tokens (ie. disregarding the trial Vintage Heroic tokens) nor (effectively) as champion rewards from 3* characters. 

Carnage

Hulk, Totally Awesome

Iceman

Invisible Woman

Jean Grey

Kingpin

Moon Knight

Peggy Carter

Professor X

Punisher, Max

Spider-Gwen

Star-Lord

Thing

Venom (Eddie)

War Machine

X-23

Note that if you farm enough 2*s, you can still get some of these 4*s eventually, but if the 3* tokens aren't being rotated regularly, then our "alternate source" of these 4* characters has been cut off as well. 

And the following list is the 3*s that are no longer available either directly or as 2* champion rewards

Beast

Colossus

Daken

Doctor Doom

Doctor Octopus

Gamora

Hood

Loki

Mystique

Psylocke

Punisher

Quicksilver

Ragnarok

Sentry

She-Hulk

Vision

I sincerely hope that the vintage heroic token is not the long-term answer to this issue.  

If vintage heroics simply replace heroics for, say, half the events - then we end up pulling half of our tokens from the current pool, and half from the classics pool - which means we haven't actually fixed dilution at all.

And if the solution is simply for us to buy vintage heroics, well that's not really a solution either. It's not like that list of 4*s is devoid of quality either - Peggy, Iceman, Teen Jean and Punisher are definitely high-end 4*s that are largely being removed from play. 

Now, if we could *exchange* a Heroic for a Vintage Heroic (and vice versa) and have some control over which characters we would like to focus on, that might be something useful...

Stranger Dan

Loki is the only 3* I'm keeping unchamped. In fact I only have him at 140. As long as his pink is less than Daken's then he can be a great pve support while my level ~204 Daken and Patch soak up and then heal off damage. So every Loki pull is just a 3* I have to sell. I do want to build a second one I can go all the way with but I feel like I should probably have a couple more roster slots before I can commit to that.

Meanwhile my Hawkguy has been sitting at 3/4/3 since his pvp so I'm looking forward to finishing him off and champing him. This particular token change works out just fine for me.

MarkersMake

I thought the same thing, Dan. But now, from the perspective of a 3*-4* transitioner - champ Loki. Sure, see if you can hide him behind other characters for now, but you will regret throwing away those covers down the road. 

He's squishy, so every champ level builds his hit points, and once he's got enough champ levels to survive a bit of match damage, he absolutely wrecks teams. 

I parked my three lonely 4* champs for the Nefarious Foes PvP because boosted/champed Hood/Loki/CMags was good enough to beat champ 4* teams. They can't beat you if they never have a turn, and Loki's purple is the main reason they don't get to play anymore after about 5 tile matches. 

So champ Loki and don't look back.

Quebbster

Now none of the Lightning round villains can be gotten from tokens. I wonder if they plan to change the Lightning round rewards to Vintage Heroic tokens?

Magic

Quebbster said:

Now none of the Lightning round villains can be gotten from tokens. I wonder if they plan to change the Lightning round rewards to Vintage Heroic tokens?

No. They will introduced the long delayed (how do you do sarcasm font on the new forum) 4* lightning round that can't be one-shot-killed by 5* partnered with Thanos. It's inevitable. Probably the next change after they nerf the DDQ vault.