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

zodiac339

And after seeing what Rocket and Groot will be able to do, I see the immediate synergy with Drax (permanent CD that activates every turn). I wonder if this indicates the new Gamora will make enemy tiles or friendly countdowns with one of her powers (hopefully an active yellow).

KinDM

Both look like nice improvements. Getting covers is still an issue. Not sure if this is where to post an idea, but why not add characters that get changed like this back into the token pool for the season that the change occurred in. Maybe even make them a PvE reward or run their PvP event. Treat it as not just a power rework, but also as a sort of rerelease of the character? A buffed character is great but not helpful to anyone who doesn't already have the old, usually worse version, championed. Having them in tokens for a month, and a chance to win a couple as PvE rewards may go a long way to making the changes more exciting for players. 

OneLastGambit

zodiac339 said:

Minor concern on Secret Weapon. The wording is "expire". I wonder if CD tiles that refresh at zero (Ghost Rider, Blad3, Human Torch) will not register as expired and won't activate the passive damage.

They won't. Those CD tiles are destroyed and recreated. So blade, torch and ghost rider won't work. Wasp should though

OneLastGambit

I sold my carnage as the only thing I ever used him for was a tile spammer (which suddenly became non existant) with his rebuff I still don't regret it. He is better than his original form but he also still doesn't quite fit the niche I want him for so no regrets at all here. 

orbitalint

I don't regret selling my 5/2/2 Carnage for some spare hp since vaulting killed any progress on him since he doesn't warrant a bonus hero spot and appreciate the responsiveness of the dev team to address a pretty bad character change but a heads up the moment this redo of a rebalance started seems warranted @Brigby. This is the first ever time it has been done in less than a month from the redo.

People like @Jonny1Punch and myself sold on the assumption this was the iteration that would not be revisited anytime soon. At most it might be put at the back end of the queue. 

I never used him anyways but I might have waited until I saw the second shot at the redo rather than selling him if I knew this was being looked into based on community feedback. I think I only sold him last week. 

Again, better communication might alleviate issues where people are upset because they sold based on history of these seemingly long term changes.

Ducky

orbitalint said:

Again, better communication might alleviate issues where people are upset because they sold based on history of these seemingly permanent changes.

I'd agree except there have been several characters who have been rebalanced twice. Invisible Woman was even rebalanced 3 times! So there is precedent (and early on) that characters can go through multiple rebalances.

orbitalint

Ducky said:

orbitalint said:

Again, better communication might alleviate issues where people are upset because they sold based on history of these seemingly permanent changes.

I'd agree except there have been several characters who have been rebalanced twice. Invisible Woman was even rebalanced 3 times! So there is precedent (and early on) that characters can go through multiple rebalances.

Ok ok, I meant in the time table they did a rebalance of a rebalance and edited appropriately. XF rebalances were many months (6+?) between each time. I don't remember the timeline for IW but doubtful it was three weeks between.

Honestly, I could live with a rebalance that took effect for a few months and then revisit it. But at the same time, I appreciate the responsiveness of the devs. However, It just feels like the "new normal" wasn't here long enough for us to make reasonable, informed sell decisions about Carnage because many of us decided to sell while they were simultaneously crafting the new one. It just feels off-putting.

Again, I don't use Carnage and his new form doesn't entice me from the likes of Carol or Peggy but it could have been simply announced in-game or on the forums and saved some of these scenarios of annoyance - "FYI -Carnage is getting another rework based on your feedback."

Jonny1Punch

I definitely don't want to come off as that super angry,hostile guy here..... I am happy that drax is getting an awesome buff as well as carnage getting tweaked. I have thoroughly enjoyed the past seasons rebuffs on 4*.

My issue is that I'm a week one veteran of this game and in 3+ years nerfs and tweaks have always been a touchy issue..... ive just never seen anything quite like the changes recently. To nerf and rebuff in less then a month without offering a buyback program or having better communication prior is a shocker to me. I didn't see carnage or oml abused or even used much in pvp.i never saw a community outcry for those 2 to get changed.  I can name a plethora of OP 5* and boosted 4s who dominate the battlefield on all levels and are far more worthy of nerfs. Currently all I see is Thanos and BP now, an old man logan sighting is rare and even boosted not many use carnage. Just confused and would love to see higher community engagement and interaction before, during and after big changes took place.

not to beat a dead horse here but we have a lot of smart people on these forums with some fantastic ideas on how to improve lacking characters / make nerfs less severe. I wish our feedback was listened to a bit better is all.

I personally would have loved to see banner and some other underwhelming 5s get boosted as opposed to something like the oml nerf..... i want the 4 and 5* tier to remain fair and consistent with all characters being competetive in unique ways. Simply pumping up oml base Health and maintaining his original black I think would have countered the yellow/ healing concern the devs had nicely. Many agreed with me but I felt our input wasn't taken into consideration and that's never a good feeling as a paying customer who wants to see there favorite game thrive. Thanks 

Piro_plock

Update to Carnage looks decent, at least he will have his niche back (but probably will be much more irritating to fight against in Venom Bomb and Heroic: Venom). I'm a bit torn on Drax: that black looks totally garbage now (compare to JG purple: for the same amount of AP you have less damage and no AOE, less special tiles removed and a pitiful board shake). On the other hand, his purple might be his best skill now. So... respec to 3/5/5 and forget about black IMO.

catcusvader

Ducky said:

orbitalint said:

Again, better communication might alleviate issues where people are upset because they sold based on history of these seemingly permanent changes.

I'd agree except there have been several characters who have been rebalanced twice. Invisible Woman was even rebalanced 3 times! So there is precedent (and early on) that characters can go through multiple rebalances.

She wasn't reworked in consecutive seasons.

Borstock

catcusvader said:

Ducky said:

orbitalint said:

Again, better communication might alleviate issues where people are upset because they sold based on history of these seemingly permanent changes.

I'd agree except there have been several characters who have been rebalanced twice. Invisible Woman was even rebalanced 3 times! So there is precedent (and early on) that characters can go through multiple rebalances.

She wasn't reworked in consecutive seasons.

I don't understand how that makes this worse.

For one, Carnage is vaulted. It's not like you would have used that time to rebuild him in any significant way. Presumably, anyone who sold Carnage thought he was a total waste of time now.

Second, the fact that they took the negative feedback and immediately (relative to their change schedule) instituted changes should be a good thing. Concerns were heard and addressed in a timely manner, as opposed to 6 months from now when everyone's complaining about 10 other things.

Akari

These changes look interesting. Carnage went from a general 5/3/5 (conditional change based on teammates) to a solid 5/5/3 - those attack tiles are insane! Drax went from a 5/3/5 to now 3/5/5? I don't like the numbers on his black, but that purple paired with Coulson... holy moly the CD damage!

catcusvader

Borstock said:

catcusvader said:

Ducky said:

orbitalint said:

Again, better communication might alleviate issues where people are upset because they sold based on history of these seemingly permanent changes.

I'd agree except there have been several characters who have been rebalanced twice. Invisible Woman was even rebalanced 3 times! So there is precedent (and early on) that characters can go through multiple rebalances.

She wasn't reworked in consecutive seasons.

I don't understand how that makes this worse.

For one, Carnage is vaulted. It's not like you would have used that time to rebuild him in any significant way. Presumably, anyone who sold Carnage thought he was a total waste of time now.

Second, the fact that they took the negative feedback and immediately (relative to their change schedule) instituted changes should be a good thing. Concerns were heard and addressed in a timely manner, as opposed to 6 months from now when everyone's complaining about 10 other things.

Who cares about vaulting or feedback, I simply stated a small but true fact. It comes down to they release a update too soon before thoroughly testing it. Another season goes by with venom eddie brock untouched.

Borstock

catcusvader said:

Who cares about vaulting or feedback,..

Um.... everybody?

DapperChewie

Changes are live. 

Seems they just went and deleted any black carnage teamups - I got one yesterday and was curious as to what they'd do with it. 

Not necessarily a complaint, just an observation. 

catcusvader

Borstock said:

catcusvader said:

Who cares about vaulting or feedback,..

Um.... everybody?

Um not me so not everybody is correct. I find myself playing less and less the game just not as fun as we when I started. Thats just me.

Azoth658

So I have a new favourite combo. #Cardusa. New carnage and medusa is almost a winfinite engine. I've got them both partial covered and I took them up against a champed boosted x23, champ boosted starlord and champ boosted Groot and won. Carnage took a hit from holding back droped to 370 health and in a few turns was back up to max 9k health again

Borstock

Azoth658 said:

So I have a new favourite combo. #Cardusa. New carnage and medusa is almost a winfinite engine. I've got them both partial covered and I took them up against a champed boosted x23, champ boosted starlord and champ boosted Groot and won. Carnage took a hit from holding back droped to 370 health and in a few turns was back up to max 9k health again

Been messing around with them + Reed. As long as you don't let yourself get one-shot, it's almost more difficult to lose.

zodiac339

Yeah, one season where we didn't have to deal with them. Question being, how often will the team be Carnage, Madusa, and the new Rocket and Groot once people have them built up? The early damage from all those strikes, the passive attack tiles, and Medusa's CD tile is going to be really good.

Azoth658

zodiac339 said:

Yeah, one season where we didn't have to deal with them. Question being, how often will the team be Carnage, Madusa, and the new Rocket and Groot once people have them built up? The early damage from all those strikes, the passive attack tiles, and Medusa's CD tile is going to be really good.

I actually​ think we won't see a major special tile maker with medusa and carnage as the 10 friendly tile cap means they pair better with an active third user.

I'd suggest someone like cloak and dagger with the healing etc will probably be a likely third when covered.