Update To Powers That Interact With Team-Up Tiles *Updated (5/12/17)

Brigby

Hi Everyone

Back in February, we made a change to powers that target random Basic tiles to no longer include Team-Up tiles as targets. We have decided to revisit those powers, and have updated a couple of them. This change will be seen in tomorrow's daily patch.

Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)

• Hex Bolt - Can still only target Basic tiles, however random tiles selected around the targeted tile can now destroy surrounding Team-Up tiles.
• Arcane Incantation - When the Countdown tile activates, it can now convert surrounding Team-Up tiles, as well as other Basic tiles, to Purple Basic tiles.

War Machine (James Rhodes)

• Gatling Gun - When the Countdown Tile activates, it can now destroy surrounding Team-Up tiles, as well as other Basic tiles.

Update: Hi Everyone. I spoke with the developers on this topic, and I wanted to pass along some insight into their design intent behind changing how certain abilities interact with Team-Up tiles.

The change was originally done due to the fact that Team-Up tiles are not considered Basic tiles, and we wanted to standardize the experience. After looking at Scarlet Witch and War Machine's powers, we decided that the change impacted the characters negatively, and they were originally designed to be more random than what the initial change allowed. By restricting the converting or destroying to only Basic tiles (to exclude Team-Up tiles), it stifled the randomness and we opted to revert the change for those powers.

The powers that were not updated were meant to be targeted powers and restricting the powers from targeting Team-Up tiles fell in-line with the original design. However, we did not intend [for] the change to be "nerfs." We would like to spend more time with the powers that weren't updated in the future, due to the player sentiment on it. We will re-evaluate the impact the change had on other characters like Quake and Cyclops (Classic)

DapperChewie

Oh good! This seems to be an acknowledgement of a problem that was created by a previous change, and rolling it back, I think is a very positive step in the right direction for everyone. 

Can the devs do the same rollback on teamup tiles for 4* Cyclops red and blue powers? The nature of those powers seems to suggest that Cyclops should be able to fire his eye lasers at anything, so why can't he target teamup tiles? 

matthatter

WOOHOO! Switch is one of my favorites again!

Orion

A necessary change.  Switch was rendered almost useless by that nerf.

huktonfonix

@Brigby what about 4* Cyclops, who was nerfed despite his blue power not even mentioning a "basic tiles" limitation at the time?

aa25

This is a great news! Thanks a lot for following up with this. What about three others characters (one already mentioned) who are also "nerfed" (4Cyke, QS, and Quake) ?

Brigby

Update: The character changes will be coming in tomorrow's daily patch, not today's. Sorry for the confusion.

udonomefoo

Orion said:

A necessary change.  Switch was rendered almost useless by that nerf.

Absolutely.  I tried using her with boosted Rhulk in the last pve and she was only helpful in about 1 in 4 matches before I gave up on her.

roderic1

For Switch, i consider this a weakening of Hex Bolt and a strengthening of Arcane Incantation.  Hex Bolting around TU tiles gave the ability to force what AP you picked up.  The net is ultimately better as Arcane Incantation is the more useful by far.

zodiac339

SWitch was the only one that mattered. Don't use War Machine much, but sounds nice. Cyclops is fine; it just means the occasional "Darn, I would have tagged more red tiles if I could target here instead."

aa25

zodiac339 said:

SWitch was the only one that mattered. Don't use War Machine much, but sounds nice. Cyclops is fine; it just means the occasional "Darn, I would have tagged more red tiles if I could target here instead."

You used to be able to collect the 10th TU ap for his red with his blue by targeting TU tile. I think that is a huge nerf of him.

Skrofa

Well, smack me around and call me Nelly! I didn't actually think they would make Switch relevant again!!

Thanks a lot guys!!! 

huktonfonix

zodiac339 said:

SWitch was the only one that mattered. Don't use War Machine much, but sounds nice. Cyclops is fine; it just means the occasional "Darn, I would have tagged more red tiles if I could target here instead."

False.  It sounds like you're viewing Cyclops's abilities primarily as AP batteries, which is missing half the utility the character brings.  He's a board control specialist who can trigger cascades with targeted tile destruction.  The inability to target a tile type that is often a low priority to match significantly reduces this function.

Also important to note is that this nerfs his red damage a great deal.  Originally, you could make 3 TU matches (hopefully with yellow down to charge up his red) and then get the 10th TU AP you needed for his boosted red by targeting a TU tile with his blue.  Now you need an extra TU match for the boosted damage instead.

Daiches

One nerf undone. OML next?

Vhailorx

This is a good update.  I agree that returning cyclops should also be returned ro his prior state, but this is definitely better than nothing.  Switch and WM were hit hardest by this chsnge.

GrimSkald

Nice!  Scarlet Witch was very badly affected by the change - I wouldn't say she was almost useless but she went from being the best purple battery and 5 of a kind generator to... meh.

bigsmooth

Thanks for the changes. SWitch definitely needed to be returned to her former glory. This is actually a very nice change for War Machine as well - he works extremely well with 4* Carol, but they both put special tiles on the board; since his green previously did not destroy special tiles OR team-up tiles, the cascade potential would often be very limited. This change will help.

I definitely agree that Cyclops should also be adjusted to once again allow him to target team-up tiles - at the very least, I believe the blue power should absolutely be able to target them from both a thematic and gameplay standpoint.

Punisher5784

This is such delightful news! I appreciate this being reviewed after our constant pleas.

I rarely used SW after the change. I still might not use her because I found new and better teams but at least now when I use her I won't be disappointed.

As for Cyke, I am surprised he is not listed. I completely stopped using him since the change. As other said above, I utilized his blue to gain the 10th T/U tile. He was also great with board control. I'll just strictly continue to use Peggy and 4hor as my R/B/Y character.

mpqr7

Thanks for making Switch strong again! I have her at lv 249, almost max champed! She's the best! (Even have a clone at 13 covers, ready for more champion rewards, once my champ gets maxed out!)

madsalad

How's about Quake?

Style55

Thank goodness. I was rarely using Scarlet Witch. Glad she'll get some playtime again.