Time Gem Season Updates *Updated (5/2/17)

Brigby
Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
edited May 2017 in MPQ Character Discussion
Hi Everyone,

The Time Gem season will have Cloak & Dagger (Classic) added to packs and Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) leaving packs.

There will be two characters receiving a character update this Versus Tournament Season: Carnage (Cletus Kassidy), and Drax (The Destroyer).

The development team had visited Carnage's design during the last season update, however based on the feedback from the community, they wanted to re-visit it to make sure these changes stood out as clear buffs for the character.

A preview of the changes are below:

Carnage (Cletus Kassidy) Update:

Symbiote Scythes

Symbiote Scythes does single and enemy team damage.  If you have less than 10 Red AP, Carnage will do team damage to all other friendly teammates as well.


Alien Instincts

This power is a Passive power that creates friendly and enemy Attack tiles as long as you have less than 10 Special tiles on the board. Damage for friendly Attack tiles has been increased and damage for enemy Attack tiles has decreased.


Carnage Rules

No Changes.


Drax (The Destroyer) Update:

The Destroyer

Deals damage and destroys enemy Special tiles. Random tiles around the enemy Special tiles are destroyed as well.


Secret Weapon

Creates a Strike tile that gains additional strength for each friendly Countdown tile on the board (maximum of 5). Also has a Passive component that deals damage whenever a friendly Countdown tile has expired.


Slice & Dice

No Changes.

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Comments

  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
    Carnage immediately sounds more useful now that there's a way to mitigate the damage done to your own team. That was always the major sticking point for me as soon as he was announced.

    He always sounded like something degisned to be fought, or something designed to use on your PvP defence team...not something you'd use consistently.

    I haven't used Drax enough to fully comment on his changes, though Secret Weapon is a pretty drastic departure from his original. I welcome that, a move that ended your turn and was only really feasable when you had another move ready to go...and had to hope the countdown timer didn't get matched, was pretty lame. As it is, the new move sounds like another ability to go along with Carol Danvers.

    Would have been nice to see Slice & Dice tweaked a little. The 90% health thing is a bit of a pest...
  • Borstock
    Borstock Posts: 2,748 Chairperson of the Boards
    I still don't like Carnage Rules, since there's no change, but this feels like a fair compromise on Alien Instincts. 

    I don't have a good feel for the Drax changes yet, but he clearly needed a buff, so this is probably a nice and welcome positive. 
  • zulux21
    zulux21 Posts: 249 Tile Toppler
    will have to see the final numbers on both of them, but unlike the last attempt with carnage this doesn't immediately scream nerf, and in fact could be a decent buff to him.
  • vudu3
    vudu3 Posts: 940 Critical Contributor
    Does this mean that 3* Starlord will not be added to tokens at the start of the new season?
  • Nepenthe
    Nepenthe Posts: 283 Mover and Shaker
    Thank you for revisiting Carnage!  The previous change was definitely NOT a buff.  Drax change sounds interesting too. :)
  • Akari
    Akari Posts: 492 Mover and Shaker
    I like this version of Carnage more than v2, but the only problem with the red is that now he's straight terrible on defense. He was always a double edged sword with his passive (if you had strike tiles he would slowly kill himself and his team), but now this red is almost designed to be used badly by the AI on defense. He's more fun to use offensively, but now his usefulness as a scarecrow is basically 0...
  • spectator
    spectator Posts: 395 Mover and Shaker
    His red is the same as it was prebuff if under 10 red ap. I don't see how that makes him any less of a scarecrow 
  • DapperChewie
    DapperChewie Posts: 399 Mover and Shaker
    His red alone isn't what makes him the scarecrow. It does enemy team damage regardless, and it's fairly cheap.

    His black, in its original incarnation, punished you for using abilities by spamming the board with attack tiles.

    Finally, fighting carnage was animation hell. 

    Basically, if you fought him, you were going to need a health pack or three. It also was going to take a while, not only because of the animations, but also because you needed stuns or to holding off on abilities to kill him first. 

    Now, he's more of a scarecrow, because his team is guaranteed to have 10 special tiles on the board every turn by round 5 (provided that he still makes 2 and 2 at 5 covers.) Less animations too, at least we hope. 
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    Hurray! Carnage lives again! Ten tiles should be plenty to make him pair well with Medusa again.

    I actually thought Drax was better than he was generally given credit for as-is (his red is absolutely barbaric on a full health target), but as long as the new version doesn't incur a major damage nerf on black this is a pretty significant buff. 
  • zodiac339
    zodiac339 Posts: 1,948 Chairperson of the Boards
    Odd that nobody immediately thought of Coulson with the Secret Weapon change. Call the Cavaly is a bit expensive, but puts out 4 CD immediately, taking only the passive from Super Secret Tech to get a max Secret Weapon strike. Ant Man could put out 5 at max rank of Ants, ants, ants for 7 yellow. Kingpin is less good with the 2 color overlap, but another option. Totally Awsome Hulk has the passive CD, dealing its own damage and proccing Secret Weapon when it goes off, plus adding the green to finish the rainbow with Coulson or Ant Man. War Machine's Gatling Gun.
    The Destroyer will still have issues with the change due to all the fortified special tile powers in the game now. I hope it still gets to break tiles around the fortified tiles it attempts to break. Don't pair with Invisible Woman, unless the idea is to use Drax to break bubbles there aren't enough to do better than the base damage of Force Field Crush.
    Symbiote Scythes will be frustrating to sit on while waiting for the 10 AP, but bringing back the Medusa, Mr. Fantastic, Carnage team will be viable again... ****. It becomes even better. Now you can't avoid Alien Instincts when attacking him. It will be fun to use, but so, so frustrating to fight against.

    And still no Spider Man change.
  • revskip
    revskip Posts: 1,025 Chairperson of the Boards
    Carnage change is great.  I really liked using him in his original incarnation with Medusa and this makes that once again possible.  

    Not sure on Drax since I have him unleveled but I heard good feedback about him during the last boss event so a decent buff to purple which was previously a big liability should make him much better.  
  • zulux21
    zulux21 Posts: 249 Tile Toppler
    zodiac339 said:
    And still no Spider Man change.
    why would you change spiderman at this point? I mean we are 2 months away from the new movie right. I imagine he will get buffed around that time. likely even give us another 4* spider in peter parker >.<:
  • zodiac339
    zodiac339 Posts: 1,948 Chairperson of the Boards
    Oh yeah. Minor synergy with these 2. The Destroyer to destroy enemy attack tiles directly instead of hoping Carnage Rules hits them. You just need a yellow, blue, green with them. So very, very minor synergy. Yeah, maybe poor team.
  • mpqr7
    mpqr7 Posts: 2,642 Chairperson of the Boards
    These changes both look great! I'm glad to see Drax finally getting a much-needed buff. And Carnage can now go back to rolling with Medusa.
  • DrDevilDinosaur
    DrDevilDinosaur Posts: 436 Mover and Shaker
    edited May 2017
    spectator said:
    His red is the same as it was prebuff if under 10 red ap. I don't see how that makes him any less of a scarecrow 


    Agreed. Further, the difference between cost and threshold is only 3 AP (7 to cast, 10 to not hit friendlies) which is a very reasonable gap to bridge. If AI Rhulk can occasionally throw out Mega Claps then AI Carnage can avoid friends.

    The return to passive for Instincts is nice. The limit on special tiles seems a bit odd, but I guess it's balanced by the fact that Carnage Rules has reduced cost.

    Overall, while these do feel like nice tweaks, there's nothing that stands out as a Kingmaker (or Kingslayer) ability.

    Edit: Misread the description for new Alien Instincts, thought it was reactive to enemy ability use AND limit of 10. Rather, it's like a 4* version of Exquisite Technique. Nice.

  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
    I thought Drax was pretty fun already - a bit slow but with impressive damage output. These Changes are a definite improvement though, so that's nice. It's also Worth noticing the Changes should go into effect Before Black Vortex ends, so Watch out for Drax there!
  • Yoik
    Yoik Posts: 251 Mover and Shaker

    Carnage I only ever used if I had to and that will probably stay the same unless people find that him plus others is the new go to team then Ill jump on the band wagon ofc.

     

    As for Drax. Im in two minds for that. I quite liked the way he was now. Boosted and with someone who has cheap powers he is really effective. I was using him against Thanos and he was the go to guys for most of it.

     

    I have both champed so its not so much of a deal. Will be good to see numbers.

  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
    @Yoik - the way I see it Drax got the bad parts of his powers removed (Destroyer removing countdowns, Secret Weapon ending the turn) and got much better abilities instead.
  • Tatercat
    Tatercat Posts: 930 Critical Contributor
    edited May 2017
    The Carnage change sounds like a fair compromise to his black, it will be great to use him Mr Fantastic again, and now medusa (I just champed her when they nerfed him).  Good to see they listened to the people who actually were playing with him and not just fighting against him (in Venom Bomb and the like).

    For Drax, really all they had to do was get rid of ENDS TURN for him to be decent, but I've got him champed (he was a rockstar during Come And Get Me), so I'm curious to see how these play out.  Black was pretty good as is, but now you can at least use it in a solo crash fight, and with all the Wasp, Carol, Medusa, C4ge teams I saw in PVP last season, he makes a good counter to special tile user/buffer teams.  Looking forward to this. Hopefully they make that Black cheaper too.

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