Support Distribution is worse than ever

bluewolf
bluewolf Posts: 5,733 Chairperson of the Boards
edited May 2019 in MPQ General Discussion
So here we are.... over a month into the Support Circuit hiatus (?) with no idea about when we might get a new event or updated tokens.

We now have 16 Supports which are only readily available via Beginner tokens (seen in PVE vaults) or if you do really well in the Season, you'll get an Advanced Support token.  So basically almost no way to get tokens consistently, and high likelihood of dupes as you fill in your collection of these 16 (if you are missing any of them).

Of those 16, 3 were part of the Original 18.  We have a BP only one (Ancestral Plane), Spider-man only one (Spider-Sense), and a Captain Marvel only one (The Carol Corp).  At least there is a pretty good mix of Villain/Hero/Any character options, and some of them are pretty good ones (Atlantis is nice, Wasp Gauntlets has a decent match damage boost component, Chewie is pretty good with adding Attack tiles passively).

The Support release frequency seems low this year, so it looks like our chances to get more have gone down dramatically for the time being.

I realize that there are a lot of issues with Supports and Support Circuit, but I was kind of enjoying the rotating tokens and ability to play for some extra riso and CP.

I don't think our current situation is an improvement at all.  Rotating the Supports in the tokens would at least keep things a little interesting while we wait for a Support Circuit rework/reimagining.

Edit:  I also realized that the current Support tokens have been the same for over 2 months now, since they were changed at the beginning of the SC that began in early March.  So, it seems high time for something to be done.
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Comments

  • Twomp_thaDJ
    Twomp_thaDJ Posts: 237 Tile Toppler
    We as a group need to just realize supports are the Easter Eggs of the game... we all know they are out there .. some people find them some don’t.. some find eggs with money in them others find an egg with old melted chocolate in it.. hell the devs have hid them and can’t remember where they hid them hence the reason they aren’t able to get them to us.. in other words don’t count on them but be happy if u get one *shrug*
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    Dormammu said:
    I only use four or five characters with any serious regularity, and they all have a decent support attached to them. I feel like I don't really need more supports, just an opportunity to improve the ones I have. 75% of the supports i own are unattached to anyone and don't see any use as it is
    While true that also sadly describes our rosters as well once we hit the 5* tier.
  • UNC_Samurai
    UNC_Samurai Posts: 402 Mover and Shaker
    There are multiple problems with supports right now.  The two major problems right now are:

    * Inconsistent ways to acquire
    * Way too hard to get higher ranks

    Once you get past those major issues, there's also the problem of the wildly inconsistent quality of the supports.  Some work really well, some are really useless - especially ones where there's only 1-3-5 ranks of abilities, and you have a chance to pull what are effectively "dead levels".  Some (like Ancestral Planes) they were smart and designed with percentage-based match damage increases.  That's a really good idea, it makes that support useful for both 3* and 5* characters.  It's a shame so many of them have absolute number increases, because those are almost completely useless at the 5* tier unless they're level 200+ (and even then you have to be lucky enough to pull a Rank 4+ support).
  • Wonko33
    Wonko33 Posts: 985 Critical Contributor
    NEXT..... support slots, buy slots to get more supports
  • Hendross
    Hendross Posts: 762 Critical Contributor
    What are supports?
  • NotBAMF
    NotBAMF Posts: 408 Mover and Shaker
    Dormammu said:
    I only use four or five characters with any serious regularity, and they all have a decent support attached to them. I feel like I don't really need more supports, just an opportunity to improve the ones I have. 75% of the supports i own are unattached to anyone and don't see any use as it is
    Yeah, this is me. I have Supports attached to Grocket, Kitty, Medusa and a few others I use with light regularity. What more do I need?
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    I think supports can elevate a character who is on the cusp of being good just enough to make a difference for usability. It’s nice to be able to change who tanks a color as well. I do agree that it is way too hard to get them at higher levels though.

    If they were allowed in PVP that would be a real game changer as well, however I’m sure it would be poorly received by the folks that haven’t really invested in them.
  • crackninja
    crackninja Posts: 444 Mover and Shaker
    jp1 said:
    I think supports can elevate a character who is on the cusp of being good just enough to make a difference for usability. It’s nice to be able to change who tanks a color as well. I do agree that it is way too hard to get them at higher levels though.

    If they were allowed in PVP that would be a real game changer as well, however I’m sure it would be poorly received by the folks that haven’t really invested in them.
    I don't see a legitimate way to include them in pvp unless they remove stacking of perks.  There are those that are able to start a battle with 12 green...that is way too much of an edge in a pvp scenario on both offense and defense.
    They would also need a good way for us to actually see what perks a team has so we know if we should attack them.
  • PiMacleod
    PiMacleod Posts: 1,770 Chairperson of the Boards
    At the risk of turning this into a whole 'nother topic...

    I wouldnt mind it in PvP if the supports weren't active on defense.  That way, you could get your wins using your supports, and you couldn't dominate defense with perks like stacking AP or whatever.

    It might be a bit harder to sit there with a meta team on defense if the attacker gets supports.
  • GKar
    GKar Posts: 20 Just Dropped In
    I agree that the supports should still rotate even if support circuit isn’t running.  We just got some interesting supports for Endgame, and it’d be nice to see them in rotation, even if we are only getting basic support tokens from vaults, better than pulling for same 16 for past x weeks.
  • Malcrof
    Malcrof Posts: 5,971 Chairperson of the Boards
    With this long of a hiatus with no info, they may be re-working the entire system, i am just going to wait and see. 
  • Richyyy
    Richyyy Posts: 305 Mover and Shaker
    GKar said:
    I agree that the supports should still rotate even if support circuit isn’t running.  We just got some interesting supports for Endgame, and it’d be nice to see them in rotation, even if we are only getting basic support tokens from vaults, better than pulling for same 16 for past x weeks.
    It's idiotic that the store hasn't been rotated. It's so easy, and so obvious, and absolutely nobody would complain, and they just can't be assed. They rotated it once! One freaking time, when the 'new 16 every month' thing was meant to be the new plan. Okay, you're re-thinking Support Circuit, or the whole support scheme, or whatever - that's no good reason to just leave people who were waiting for the next batch sitting there with support tokens.

    And while in the grand scheme of things it's a pretty minor issue, especially given how much of a waste of time supports have been in general, it's just yet another sign that they're not really paying attention and/or don't really care.
  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
    crackninja said:

    I don't see a legitimate way to include them in pvp unless they remove stacking of perks.  There are those that are able to start a battle with 12 green...that is way too much of an edge in a pvp scenario on both offense and defense.
    They would also need a good way for us to actually see what perks a team has so we know if we should attack them.
    I mean jeez, you can't even see what cover distribution a character has before going into PVP.
  • StevO-J
    StevO-J Posts: 751 Critical Contributor
    While we're theoretically updating things in PVP... could we add a Skip button that actually works? In stead of one that just rotates the same 5 or 6 opponents, and seems to say 'you really should not play PVP'...

    But on topic: yeah, rotate the available Supports in tokens, please. This current batch has been the same for way too long.
  • jamesh
    jamesh Posts: 1,600 Chairperson of the Boards
    Dragon_Nexus said:
    crackninja said:

    I don't see a legitimate way to include them in pvp unless they remove stacking of perks.  There are those that are able to start a battle with 12 green...that is way too much of an edge in a pvp scenario on both offense and defense.
    They would also need a good way for us to actually see what perks a team has so we know if we should attack them.
    I mean jeez, you can't even see what cover distribution a character has before going into PVP.
    There's two questions here: (a) is the information available?, and (b) is the information available in a useful form?
    It is possible to determine the cover distribution of an enemy team in PVP prior to the fight by going to the team-up selection page and clicking on one of the enemy characters: that will display the power descriptions with numbers that should let you work backwards to the cover levels.  In practice, I never do this because it is too slow.  The game mode requires you to make decisions quickly, so I'll usually decide whether to fight a team based solely on characters and levels.
    If they did introduce supports into PVP, I think they'd need to show the names and levels of each support equipped with the same prominence as they display the enemy characters.  Rank might be nice too, but you'd often be able to guess that from the level.  Sure, someone might have a level 1 rank 5 support equipped, but that probably won't be too reliable.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,101 Chairperson of the Boards
    I don't think display of cover distribution is that major an issue. Sure it would be nice but it only matters to champed characters and more likely than not they will be set to optimal builds where such exists. Even if they aren't there isn't a huge level of variation available.

    I'm a big fan of checking rosters before deciding to engage so Supports would be a whole other issue though with waaaaay too many nasty surprises waiting in the long grass without prior warning. I know my own weaknesses when playing PvP (mainly stretching teams too far to not use healthpacks) and so if I cop a loss it is usually my own fault or the AI just got on a roll, I'd like to keep it that way and not have match after match be a potential minefield due to lack of information.

  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    You can view an opponents equipped support and its rank/level on the roster screen. What am I missing?
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,101 Chairperson of the Boards
    jp1 said:
    You can view an opponents equipped support and its rank/level on the roster screen. What am I missing?
    Would be much better if there was someway we didn't have to go rooting around for it and it was made available in a more simple way.

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