Character-specific supports need to be in that character’s champion rewards

ThaRoadWarrior

a few supports have come out lately that feature perks that clearly would have been attached to the character they belong to as a passive had they been released 6 months ago. For instance the synergy perk on Stepford Cuckoos absolutely belongs on Diamond Form as a passive straight up. I propose such supports (ideally not exist at all, but since that is not likely) be added to that character’s progression rewards at a reasonably low level so that champing a character will give you a completed build for them.

Ptahhotep

Maybe add several support rewards so that the support can be levelled along with the character.

Persephone

Ptahhotep said:

Maybe add several support rewards so that the support can be levelled along with the character.

I agree. We get heroic tokens as champ rewards.  Why not support tokens?

ThaRoadWarrior

The ones that are character-specific with a synergy perk that adds a chance for something to happen are fine; for instance Hulkling/Wiccan: at the start of the turn, there's an 8% chance to gain 2AP in a color you have less than 6 of would be OP if it was a permanent passive without that percent chance to happen. But Stepford Cuckoos adds a flat damage reduction to a power that should clearly already be reducing damage (but isn't), and in a nearly identical way to how Iron Spider's Quick Reflexes does on its built-in passive:

Emma Frost Synergy Perk

• Rank 5 Level 250
• Enemy powers deal 298 less damage to Emma for each Fortified friendly tile on the board (max of 6 tiles).

Quick Reflexes -  Passive
Spider-Man's Spider-sense lets him anticipate danger and react accordingly. Whenever Spider-Man makes a match, create 2 Web tiles. Enemy powers deal 12% less damage to Spider-Man for each Web tile on the board. Whenever Spider-Man takes damage from an enemy power, remove half of all Web tiles (rounded down).

With synergy perks like this coming out, I'm pretty sure that we're going to start seeing multiple character-specific supports that fundamentally alter a specific power based on which one you have equipped before too much longer. I could easily see a Hellfire Club (or whatever) support with a different Emma Frost synergy perk that makes Labor for Learning put out Black Panther (King of Wakanda) level strike tiles rather than 3* Bullseye level strike tiles, forcing you to choose the defense benefit of Stepford, or the offensive benefit of this hypothetical support. On the one hand, customization like that is fun, but on the other, supports are impossible to get, and punishing to level, so the net result for most players is going to be a bunch of characters we percieve as duds because they aren't any good on their own.

Sim Mayor

Agreed to pretty much everything said in this discussion so far. I was a big supporter...ummm (scrolls through thesaurus app) booster of supports when they first came out, but it really looks like they're currently being used as a way of tacking on powers that would have just been given to the character before. It's power creep that only benefits people who are willing to spend ridiculous amounts of HP / CP / $$ the instant a new character comes out.

Alex502

This ties back to the limited availability of supports, and how ridiculous it is to make it nearly impossible to collect these keys to a character's effectiveness, let alone training or ranking it up.

Perhaps a support specific event, kind of like the SHIELD training program we already get? Hell, making supports a major theme to the rewards to that event is an easy fix. I hate how rarely I can do them, as my 4* rooster is deep but fairly spread out (I'm missing only seven total 4* character, but have only seven champed as well) but we NEED, not want or need, we NEED a way to earn more of them.

Biggest point to be made: drop more supports!! Somewhere. As a champ reward, as a support specific event or as rewards for specific specialty events. They can't just keep adding content to this aspect of the game without increasing how we interact with it. Think of it that way instead, if you must. The amount of access to the support function is so low, with so little return value, that it gets more indifference, or even outrage at the idea over all.

Give us a way to dig into supports, let us build them up somehow. Compare it to the rarity of other aspects of the game, and how played they are. There are more 3* or 4* players than anything else, and the amount of content they have added to supports would really add to their play style, IF we could actually play for it, and build it up. I don't understand why supports I general are more rare than 5* characters.