Bishop sucking the fun out of the game

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  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    jp1 said:
    tiomono said:
    jp1 said:
    I give up...people avoid the actual point just to argue.

    Like Jack said, there is no way to avoid matching 3. I can bring Bishop but quite frankly hate him so much I don’t have any desire to.
    I agree about people missing the point and arguing just to argue, in both threads actually. There’s a reason though. When you make the argument about something else, you can actually start to argue. But when you stay focused on the actual problems/issues, then it’s indefensible. A character that does what he does should not exist.  One who punishes doing the one thing you have to do to play the game (match gems), is unfun to play with and against, who can generate 30 AP in a turn, who can stun lock your team, and who you cannot avoid by targeting his partners... that character should not exist as is. We all know it. And since we can’t really argue against those points, we make the issue about something else and argue those points instead. 
    This is a pretty dismissive attitude to take with people who simply don’t agree with you. The fact is that you (and others) would like to make the “argument” so reductive that you can boil it down to right and wrong, of course with your side being right, and this just isn’t a good faith discussion.

    In much the same way, any counterpoint is simply dismissed with a “you’re missing the whole point”. To be frank, the complete disregard for any differing opinion speaks more about the people who want the change than those who don’t. 

    It’s all good though. Now that I understand that this isn’t a discussion and it’s just a place to talk about how we all hate Bishop and how broken he is, I’ll see my way out.
    So it's ok to match 3 and do 2k damage to an opponent and they get to passively gain 5 ap and do 4k damage and then take their own turn? 
    In the context of putting that particular scenario in a vacuum, no, it is not okay. I don’t think Bishop is the problem he is being made out to be though, and reducing the entire debate down to one simple factor that fits a desired narrative isn’t productive or fair.

    The real question, if I’m being reductive as well, is can Bishop be managed and you are able to still have success in PVP? The answer to that is “yes”. Of course that discounts the points everyone else has brought up, so I would try to make that argument with points of debate to back up my stance, but then I’m just “ignoring the point”. 

    I’m not looking to be rude to anyone or discount their outrage at the state of things. It annoys me a bit when I respectfully disagree and accusations are thrown in my direction though.

    That scenario is not some corner case or something happening in a “vacuum”. It’s what happens every time a 5* player makes a match. It only ends up much much worse if you happen into a cascade. By your own admission, this is not okay, and all we are asking is that it’s fixed. 

    Nobody called you out or attacked you personally. We’ve had people argue that (paraphrasing)

    “if Bishop is nerfed then Kitty should be nerfed”
    ”if Bishop is nerfed Thor should be nerfed”
    ”5* players just don’t want to use health packs!”
    ”5* players just don’t want to lose their spots on top”
    ”Just use low level characters that don’t trigger him”
    ”My Bishop team was beaten by a non-Bishop team, so he can be defeated”

    and probably other arguments that I can’t think of now (the original thread was super long). Some of those arguments are completely off-topic others just miss the point completely. But when we make the issue something different, (like whether or not Thor should be nerfed), then we can debate that point a lot easier.

    And people aren’t boiling the Bishop issue down to one point that occurs in a vacuum. There are several reasons to nerf him including...

    “It’s not okay to match 3 and do 2k damage to an opponent and they get to passively gain 5 ap and do 4k damage and then take their own turn”

    ”A character should not be able to passively shut down the entire tier above him”

    ”The only true counter is weak and stuck in Classics hell (Surfer)”

    ”He’s not fun for 5* players to play with or against”

    ”There is no real counter in match or way to stop his mechanic (like attacking his teammates)”

    ”His existence could promote people not advancing their rosters as the Bishop problem is a 5* problem”

    “Many people are less engaged with the game, playing less and giving up in PVP thanks to his presence”

    Honestly, that initial reason that you yourself said wasn’t okay, should be enough to change him. But if you need more reasons to nerf... there you go. 

    By the way... with the right amount of luck and at similar levels, any team can win or lose. Someone lucking into beating Bishop does not undo any of the above points. When nerfing Gambit was discussed, the biggest and best counter argument was that he could be beaten with or without Gambit. People posted all sorts of teams that they tried and succeeded with (way more teams than I’ve seen when discussing Bishop counters). And you know what? None of it mattered. He could be beaten, but was still nerfed because the developers thought he had a broken mechanic. I think and hope that eventually the developers will understand that Bishop does as well. 
    I would like to point out that listing surfer as a true counter feels off to me. He has to tank to stop the stun. I also feel it is possible to cover characters from classic tokens, just slow. I have a 12 cover surfer but have yet to dump the iso in to raise him to 435. Right now he is at 365 and it will cost 229,851 to max his level out. But he still would struggle to tank much in a team of 2 other 5's. Maybe I will just take the plunge and level home up to see how good he is vs champed bishop.

    For me the stun is not the issue. The issue is Bishop doing 4k damage to my 2k while gaining 5 ap to my 3. Then taking his own turn.
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    bluewolf said:
    On average, you would spend 2200 CP to get one cover for all the 5's in Classics at the moment.  (It will go up when Rescue enters.)  So yes, it's possible to cover people from Classics but my estimate for doing anyone from scratch who you don't bonus (as much as that helps) is between 29-35K CP.  Hopefully you'd get some covers from feeders or something.....

    I finished Surfer with the help of Reed pretty recently (he is 450) and as has been pointed out numerous times, his match damage is very weak (he is 36th out of all the 5's) so he'd need to be ginormous to be tanking reliably over the power-crept newer members in the tier.

    Not to mention that Surfer all around is pretty weak and ineffective, but at least he can't be stunned.
    Not that I dare to try take this off topic, but this is an excellent point and highlights yet another issue that really does need resolution from the dev team; 5* power creep and the absolute necessity of having the older 5s such as SS, Phoenix, Banner etc all desperately needing reworks to bring them in line with the new age of 5s.
    At the very least they could make 5*'s like every other tier. Even our their match damage so there is not so much variation. At the same level Phoenix matching 3 green should hurt the same as Carol matching 3 red.
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    The cult mentality in these threads is ridiculous. 

    You know, I give up as well. I would rather see Bishop nerfed into oblivion than read this nonsense on an endless loop. How far home can you drive the same point? 

    Thor needs a nerf as well if a ridiculous mechanic is all that matters. Half-health Thor is gaining tons of free AP and doing massive damage from turn 1. Then after 2 to 3 turns he is dropping enough AOE damage to wipe most of the team. That is a perfectly acceptable mechanic though? Okay...

    Remember, it doesn’t matter if Thor can be beat, it’s not the point, it’s his one specific mechanic and if it is fair or not. No other factors can be considered.

    Long live Thorkoye, Health pack free PvP, shield hopping, and Line manipulation. Make the masses happy.

    #bishopsucksfor20likes
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,729 Chairperson of the Boards
    Thor was power creep, no question.  Running him with Okoye, yeah, it's problematic in a sense.  It's very easy to use them and all that.

    The problem is that after you give someone a toy that they enjoy, taking it without giving them different, just-as-effective toys is not a good idea.

    Especially in a 6 year old mobile game where you are trying your hardest to find new people to decide to engage with it, being 6 years behind veteran players and knowing they will never be truly competitive.

    Nerfing the tool that many players lean on? Without giving them something equally good to use?  will just lead to people walking away, when you are not growing as a game, you're holding steady.

    That makes no business sense.

    Thor came after Gambit and gave a lot of the same tools - AP gen, massive hits.  Do you think it was a coincidence that they waited to nerf Gambit until a new meta was available?  Do you think they would have nerfed Gambit if Okoye didn't exist?

    He would have laughed at Gritty and they would be a complete non-starter in his 2.0 form.

    Maybe Thor gets nerfed when some other OP person comes along that does something approximately equal.

  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited September 2019
    Yes, I agree with all that. Doesn’t all this Bishop stuff stink of hypocrisy then? 

    I am in fact not in favor of a Thor nerf, as I’ve stated multiple times. The point is you can make any point you like with enough confirmation bias and when any challenge is shouted away as complete nonsense.

    Its bordering on subterfuge.
  • BigSoftieFF
    BigSoftieFF Posts: 454 Mover and Shaker
    If 6* are released and they get shut down by Thor, I’m all for the nerf.
  • wymtime
    wymtime Posts: 3,758 Chairperson of the Boards
    As some I am hearing a lot of back and forth on Bishop and I think the biggest problem is the Dev’s don’t go back and rebalance their characters enough.  I think the last character rework was Mr Fantastic in the beginning of the year.  

    I personally would like to me to see them review and rebalance a lot of characters that means buffs as well as nerfs.  This could be monthly for one to two characters with a potential reworking a character on a quarterly basis.  This would be 5* and 4*.

    personally for Bishop I mainly see him in Sim and when he has his weekly Buff.  It is not the end of the world for me to face him, but it is not my favorite character to go up against. I do think there is enough frustration from the player-base to have the devs review Bishop and determine if and how he could be rebalanced
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    jp1 said:
    The cult mentality in these threads is ridiculous. 

    You know, I give up as well. I would rather see Bishop nerfed into oblivion than read this nonsense on an endless loop. How far home can you drive the same point? 

    Thor needs a nerf as well if a ridiculous mechanic is all that matters. Half-health Thor is gaining tons of free AP and doing massive damage from turn 1. Then after 2 to 3 turns he is dropping enough AOE damage to wipe most of the team. That is a perfectly acceptable mechanic though? Okay...

    Remember, it doesn’t matter if Thor can be beat, it’s not the point, it’s his one specific mechanic and if it is fair or not. No other factors can be considered.

    Long live Thorkoye, Health pack free PvP, shield hopping, and Line manipulation. Make the masses happy.

    #bishopsucksfor20likes
    Look, no offense, but you just did everything I accused the nerf-detractors of in my last post.

    Should Thor be nerfed? I personally don’t think so, for plenty of reasons. However, it is debatable. I won’t pretend that it’s not. If you or Hound want to start a new thread or bump an old one, I’m all for it. I’ll likely debate it in whatever thread you all decide to use. 

    I pointed out several arguments that people have made as to why Bishop should be nerfed, and you still claim we boil it down to one issue devoid of context. 

    You attack the posters, saying they have a “cult mentality” rather than attack their arguments (plural) as to why he should be nerfed. If that’s the route you want to take, then I support you “giving up” in this thread.

    Maybe the reason why they all have a “cult mentality” is because they are all seeing the same broken mechanic? Most those who are not part of the “cult” are NOT getting punished for matching  3, are NOT having a miserable time with Bishop and do NOT see him as a problem in their tier?

    It’s not about 20 likes, saving health packs, or any other point that you brought in that is besides the actual points being made. Bishop needs to be fixed for all the reasons I stated in my last post.  I’m not going to repeat them all if they are just going to be sidestepped again.

    When focusing on his actual mechanics, you stated that when looked at in “a vacuum”, what Bishop does every time a 5* team matches 3 is “not okay”. If nothing else, know that I appreciate you at least acknowledging as much. 

    Normally I find you to be a rational person. However in these debates you have become increasingly abrasive. You continue to state opinions as facts, plural. Further if any attacks have been made they certainly haven’t been made by me. Again bias is obstructing judgment about what is and what is not a discussion based in good faith. 

    I acted like like the rest of you for a single post, I’ll own that. But of course you have done no wrong throughout and my observation was a personal attack. A bit self indulgent in my view. 

    Cute lumping me in with Hound as well, since you all love to dump on him so. Sorry I am not towing the Bishop company line. Other people are entitled to opinions you know? Even when they differ from those of you and your buddies.
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    Sm0keyJ0e said:
    Can we please get this thread back on track? Throwing out other characters that you feel need to be re-balanced just derails the topic, which is Bishop is a horrible, horrible toon and broken beyond reason. He should have never been released and needs to be fixed ASAP.

    Start new threads for other re-balances.

    I do have another thought: maybe a "Filter PVP teams" button so you can select "Don't show teams with Bishop on them". Everyone wins! 5* players don't have to look at them, 4* can float freely without wasting HP on shields, and the Devs go broke because no one is spending on HP anymore.
    Fair enough. You will notice if you read my subsequent post that I only used Thor for an example of what I consider to be flawed logic. I would never advocate for a nerf...the compensation is never adequate and it’s nothing short of theft in my opinion.

    As soon as I have nothing more to respond to, I’ll leave the thread to it’s usual shoulder patting platitudes. (Sorry, a bit miffed at the moment...not directed at you)
  • Sm0keyJ0e
    Sm0keyJ0e Posts: 730 Critical Contributor
    jp1 said:
    Sm0keyJ0e said:
    Can we please get this thread back on track? Throwing out other characters that you feel need to be re-balanced just derails the topic, which is Bishop is a horrible, horrible toon and broken beyond reason. He should have never been released and needs to be fixed ASAP.

    Start new threads for other re-balances.

    I do have another thought: maybe a "Filter PVP teams" button so you can select "Don't show teams with Bishop on them". Everyone wins! 5* players don't have to look at them, 4* can float freely without wasting HP on shields, and the Devs go broke because no one is spending on HP anymore.
    Fair enough. You will notice if you read my subsequent post that I only used Thor for an example of what I consider to be flawed logic. I would never advocate for a nerf...the compensation is never adequate and it’s nothing short of theft in my opinion.

    As soon as I have nothing more to respond to, I’ll leave the thread to it’s usual shoulder patting platitudes. (Sorry, a bit miffed at the moment...not directed at you)

    You shouldn't leave the thread as you're one of the few proponents of leaving Bishop alone. I am also not an advocate of nerfs--I have never asked for a nerf before Bishop outside of Gambit. Not because I don't think they should re-balance characters (most games do so regularly) it's because they don't know how to re-balance characters. That said, I'm ok with a nerf into the ground because IMHO Bishop is broken within the 5* tier for reasons pointed out previously by myself and myriad others.
  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,790 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yes thor should be nerfed but this isn’t what this thread is about and for vastly different reasons to bishop. You want to start a thread on that I’m onboard that train too  :D

    Bishop might get a nerf when we are all done chasing him to 370 and then with their track record the first nerf will probably increase the stun duration and also collect red AP along with blue.
  • Xair
    Xair Posts: 77 Match Maker
    pvp is the reason for the debate if bishop wasn't in pvp, no one would care how op he is.
    trying to drag the debate to reasons out of the pvp scope is a distractor.

    i think the real problem is, that people don't understand how emotional a nerf can be.

    when i just started playing seriously gambit just entered the latest store. i invested a ton of time and money to get him upgraded, and i was completely reliant on him for my gameplay.

    i was not really aware of the heated debate in this forum around him, and i was completely taken by surprise when the nerfs came, and made him irrelevant, with zero compensation. i felt completely disappointed and i literally left the game for almost a year.

    only recently i decided to come back to the game, and now i see this same thing happening again.

    so i get it, some of the players that have bishop, absolutely love him, they feel dependant on what he has done to their game play, and they can't imagine the game without him. they refuse to even entertain critic and compare him to any other strong char, in order to defend their position.

    i get it, and i get that this debate is not really meant to convince any one, because everyone have their own opinion and it will remain as it is.

    the truth for me is that i can't beat teams with bishop in pvp. he is like a complete closed off defense, he is stronger than a shield cause at least a shield doesn't block my path. ever since bishop started popping up, i can't advance in pvp. i have to lose on purpose to get lower rank, in order to proceed.
    against Groot & kitty i have 50% chance of winning if i am lucky, but against with bishop i have 0% chance of winning.

    weather bishop generates more money to the game or not, bishop will get nerfed i am sure, this debate won't really make much difference.
    he is just too broken.
    the real problem is how will the dev team nerf him without causing players to be too upset, or even quit the game. 

  • Sm0keyJ0e
    Sm0keyJ0e Posts: 730 Critical Contributor
    Xair said:
    ...when i just started playing seriously gambit just entered the latest store. i invested a ton of time and money to get him upgraded, and i was completely reliant on him for my gameplay. 

    i was not really aware of the heated debate in this forum around him, and i was completely taken by surprise when the nerfs came, and made him irrelevant, with zero compensation...

    They did offer compensation and many, many people sold their Gambits. But yeah, other than that they made him irrelevant.