Character Re-balancing: Over-Priced Powers

purplemur

Thread for the discussion of powers that work as intended but the value is just not there. They should hit harder/cost less/last longer/etc.
Which powers do you think could be "fixed" by simply adjusting the numbers up?

Lets keep it positive: No Nerfs allowed! Lets fight power creep with power creep and assume that suggested numbers are to make a character top-tier. 

purplemur

1) 4* Deadpool - Out of Bullets I think should be 9/10 red AP- he improvises all the time without guns. not as spammy as his 3*red but it should be fairly frequent
2)4* Kraven - Most Dangerous Game - when matched needs to do at least as much as 4* Spiderwoman- it should be the biggest trap damage in the game(most dangerous). If your going to pay 10AP it should even outpace Tracking Prey because TP gets cheaper. When boosted it should kill you.
3)4* Shuri - Twin Blasters at 5 Covers should stun 4 turns, 4* Miles Morales - Venom Blast - should be comparable to 4*Gamora

Heartbreaksoup

2* Bullseye has a power that almost never gets used.  His black creates a single critical tile and costs 17 AP.  Bullseye is in my current DDQ team (which is my three highest-ranked 2*s) until he gets to level 144 and gets sold off to restart, and I don't think any of these matches have lasted long enough for me to obtain 17 black AP.

TPF Alexis

Heartbreaksoup said:

2* Bullseye has a power that almost never gets used.  His black creates a single critical tile and costs 17 AP.  Bullseye is in my current DDQ team (which is my three highest-ranked 2*s) until he gets to level 144 and gets sold off to restart, and I don't think any of these matches have lasted long enough for me to obtain 17 black AP.

It is better at 5 covers. Still hard to get the AP, but two Crits placed exactly where you want them is just devastating. I think I've only ever used it in missions where I had someone else generating black, tho.

I know it doesn't really matter for just about anyone, but 1* Iron Man blue is definitely in the same zone. Good power, but you almost never end up with the AP for it. Knocking it down to like 15 or so might actually let it get used.

ThaRoadWarrior

I play Kraven un-ironically a bunch, and I don’t know that his trap needs to do loads of damage. The point of that trap is to make sure the enemy has AP in their strongest color when you use his countdown. I would suggest having that trap be more like Medusa’s entanglement: out on passive, nipping a single AP every turn. If it gets matched, it does what it does now except the tiles it creates are weak enemy specials on their strongest color so both his powers can be self-accelerated. Increase the damage on black either by destroying more AP than 3-each (uncap it?) or bumping the number

Rod5

Natasha

Everything cheaper would make her playable. As is...not so much.

That said, in 5* land with the monstrosity that was Gambit’s AP destruction now gone suddenly less cheap powers become viable again. Hopefully.

PuceMoose

4* Blade

Supernatural Sense

This ability always seemed wildly overcosted to me at 11. Plus, its secondary effect only seems to help you when you probably don't really need it. I would change the cost to 8, and change the secondary to "If Blade's team has less than 7 red AP, Blade also creates (4/5/6) Red tiles.

wymtime

I will say 5* starlord bit of both.  8k AOE damage with board shake for 12AP is just not enough.  I would bump up the AOE damage to 11-12k.

5* wasp black I would drop down to 8 AP. For the health steal.
BSSB automotive Artilary I would drop down to 12AP from 14

jamesh

TPF Alexis said:

I know it doesn't really matter for just about anyone, but 1* Iron Man blue is definitely in the same zone. Good power, but you almost never end up with the AP for it. Knocking it down to like 15 or so might actually let it get used.

I suspect some of the 1* powers are costed the way they are to help train new players.  You get Iron Man early on, and have to decide how to allocate your 13 covers: do you make your big expensive nuke as powerful as possible, or do you pump up his weaker powers on the basis that you'll use them more?

I've heard it said that Yelena Belova is intentionally a dud for similar reasons: to teach players that it is okay to ignore certain characters.

Rogue4Lyfe

3* Angel (X-Men) needs to change his power cost.
Blade (Modern) needs to change his Black Power (Supernatural Sense)
Spider Man (Bag-Man) needs a full rework.
Rogue's Passive Form (Power Siphon) should be reduced to 13 AP to activate.

JackTenrec

Everything Flaptain.  Almost all of his utility depends on getting protect tiles out on the board, which costs 9 yellow AP (which also reduce the effectiveness of the power by reducing the number of yellow tiles on the board).  His nuke is almost never really usable aside from its base value; by the time you collect an absurd amount of red AP, most of those protect tiles have been destroyed, unless you choose to hoard both yellow and red and fire those powers back-to-back).  Either way: slooooooow.

His power costs might be okay to live with if some self-acceleration were introduced.  Maybe matches on his protects could produce yellow and/or red AP.  Or the countdown reduction on his blue matches could be changed to AP generation instead.  Or Divebomb was actually inverted -- damage is greatest when no yellow protects exist, but is reduced for each yellow protect on the board, but yellow protects reduce its AP cost (similar to Psylock red/Eddie Brock Venom green).

Warbringa

Kingpin - his black needs to be changed back to a big damage power.  His purple is ok as is his yellow but the nerf to his black actually made him worse.  He needs a poke of doom since it also costs countdown tiles to use, it should do a lot of damage.

ThaRoadWarrior

JackTenrec said:

Everything Flaptain.  Almost all of his utility depends on getting protect tiles out on the board, which costs 9 yellow AP (which also reduce the effectiveness of the power by reducing the number of yellow tiles on the board).  His nuke is almost never really usable aside from its base value; by the time you collect an absurd amount of red AP, most of those protect tiles have been destroyed, unless you choose to hoard both yellow and red and fire those powers back-to-back).  Either way: slooooooow.

I'd rather see him be more interesting rather than do more damage. Change his yellow to a 2-turn countdown that creates some number of weak-ish defend tiles on any color when it decrements to 0. Leave it as a countdown rather than a repeater so that his blue will work on it. OR if it needs to be a repeater, mod his blue so that it accelerates repeaters actively since nobody else can do that yet (and it will enhance his synergy with characters that can help him like P4nther and maybe Frost) and passively buff more tiles by the same amount it already does, maybe 4 tiles instead of 2, or reduce the buff amount and let it buff all friendly special tiles on the board when you match blue.

crackninja

jamesh said:

TPF Alexis said:

I know it doesn't really matter for just about anyone, but 1* Iron Man blue is definitely in the same zone. Good power, but you almost never end up with the AP for it. Knocking it down to like 15 or so might actually let it get used.

I suspect some of the 1* powers are costed the way they are to help train new players.  You get Iron Man early on, and have to decide how to allocate your 13 covers: do you make your big expensive nuke as powerful as possible, or do you pump up his weaker powers on the basis that you'll use them more?

I've heard it said that Yelena Belova is intentionally a dud for similar reasons: to teach players that it is okay to ignore certain characters.

Interesting thought.  Makes me wonder if new players actually get that message.  Especially in it's current state, people use 1* characters for less than a week though (outside of ddq), so I'd prefer they just leave the tier alone.

Jarvind

My favorite is 3* cap's yellow. I honestly don't think I've ever used it. The protects are actually really strong but the cost is so hilariously high.

bigsmooth

First and foremost, @BlackBoltRocks is correct about Angle of Attack. The AP cost is just nuts on that one.

Another one that bugs me: Spider-Woman's red (System Shock). It's a decent power but it's just too expensive at 14 AP. After her trap tiles were nerfed to no longer trigger if a match 4 "line" destroyed them, she lost a lot of her damage dealing potential, so I think dropping the cost of red to 11-12 AP would make her a lot more relevant.

ThaRoadWarrior

System Shock is way too pricey. It seems comparable in utility to Sand Blast, which distributes the damage evenly and consistently stuns the target for 9 green AP.

System Shock has a 3 turn stun and does more single target damage, but the stun is random; i'm not sure that justifies it costing 14 red - generally you pay more for consistency in this game than you do for a random effect.

Anon

Nightcrawlers Blue. It costs too much for what it does. Hell, Mordos Purple is way better for less.

Straycat

4* Thor's yellow. Should do more damage or be cheaper, and make charged tiles even if it doesn't replace anything

DAZ0273

Hasn't this thread been Necro'ed and so should be insta-closed?

I don't think I can keep up with this forums "rules" these days...

jym010

They need to do away with any power that when you launch it, it automatically reverts back to the other team.  I am thinking Squirrel girl yellow and whatever Hood power it is(don't play him that much).  I never use Squirrel Girl yellow because the defense tiles, while nice, don't allow me to make any matches. once launched.