They've basically given up on supports, haven't they?

ROY84

It was a fun idea I guess. How they handled gaining supports is how I picture they'd implement gaining shards. Lots of gravitas with no follow through. 

Why don't they actually fully implement their prior updates before removing bonus heroes?

bluewolf

They DO keep rotating the Support pool.

And there was a series of Support-related questions on a survey earlier this year.

Are they dead?  No, but they are definitely in hibernation.  Maybe after shards get worked out something will happen.....but it could definitely be a while yet.

jp1

I think they painted themselves into a corner with supports. They couldn’t monetize them in the way they really hoped for and so they want to kill them altogether. However, you will really upset a section of players who embraced them and took the time and put in the resources to build them up if you just take them away. 

Compensation is not their strong suit, so I’m happy with them just being left alone rather than removed...but, I have most of them and almost all the really useful ones. A new player might see that as an unfair advantage, which is a fair point.

fmftint

If I had to guess I'd say supports were the pet project of someone who's no longer with the company

DAZ0273

jp1 said:

I think they painted themselves into a corner with supports. They couldn’t monetize them in the way they really hoped for and so they want to kill them altogether.

I don't understand this type of reasoning. In theory anything can be monetised if you go at it from the right angle. The "Shards" system for example could easily be expanded to Supports.

Godzillafan67

I like supports. I have some supports. I would like more supports.

shardwick

I think that they're holding off on them for now until they revamp their rewards. They want to put shards into progression and placement, probably want to do the same with the mighty token, and I think that they will do something similar with supports. This could be when they also add cl10 to the game.

broll

I'd love to believe they've given up, I've always hated them.  It's far more likely though they are trying to fix the mirariad of issues prior to a re-introduction.  Fingers crossed they make them far better if/when they do.

pheregas

Even if they've given up on new supports, there should be an in-game way to get existing ones other than those stupid vault tokens. I said at release that I'd dump RIso into the first one that I got to 5 stars.  However, current tokens don't actually let you do that...

Daredevil217

For me, them being PVE-only makes most of them an after thought with very few exceptions (which is true for many people of characters as well I guess). My entire PVE roster outside of essentials is comprised of the following teams:

4* Grocket/ 4* Juggernaut/ 5* Star-Lord (underleveled)

5* Thanos/ 5* Daredevil/ 5* Essential

5* Thanos/ Kitty Pryde/ 4* Grocket

5* Thor/ Okoye/ 5* Essential

for 2-4* essentials: 5* Thanos/5E or 5* Thanos/5* Daredevil

So... 8-person rotation (9 if you include a rotating 5* Essential) which I imagine is way more than most people use. So I could only ever use 8-9 supports really. I’ve also had some awful luck with them. Before last week where I pulled two 4* from Beginner tokens I had only ever gotten two 4* and no 5* I the history of supports. 

[Note: I’m less competitive in PVP and will use pretty much all my 5* champs in various combos.]

Warbringa

Well you knew they were DOA when they couldn't, and rightly so, be used in PvP which is half of the game.  I think the idea was good but they didn't have a clear picture in how they fit in to the overall game, thus many of the complaints in RNG, distribution, red iso etc. 

Phumade

OJSP said:

Perhaps supports allow a lot of players to punch much higher above their weight (newer players rely on Supports to beat Crash of the Titans, for example).

This is a big point.  If a 5* support let’s a sub 300 day player consistently win cott 6 months early. Then it really is “pay to advance”

overall I am just happy they are rotating access to the pool.  A lot of the effects were fun and it’s a shame they can’t rebalance skills so we can use some version in pvp.

shardwick

I don't even know why supports aren't allowed in pvp. You go into a pvp match with an option of up to three team-ups and/or boosts, your opponent gets one. So supports could work in a similar way where you could use a support for a character but it would take up one of your team-up slots. It could also work like the all AP boost where once you're out you need to spend more hp to use a support in a pvp match.

Phumade

OJSP said:

shardwick said:

I don't even know why supports aren't allowed in pvp.

Because those who have both 3* or higher Atlantis and Yaro Root also have big Thors I imagine they are beating our teams in less than a minute already. With those supports and some AP boosts and some luck, they will beat us in one turn. So, until they have a better and even way of distributing supports, I don't see it happening.

Chewie the flerkin would be a god tier support for gritty combos in pvp. Creating attack specials on match4.? You almost think chewie and Lockheed’s powerset were mixed up

Tony_Foot

OJSP said:

shardwick said:

I don't even know why supports aren't allowed in pvp.

Because those who have both 3* or higher Atlantis and Yaro Root also have big Thors I imagine they are beating our teams in less than a minute already. With those supports and some AP boosts and some luck, they will beat us in one turn. So, until they have a better and even way of distributing supports, I don't see it happening.

I don't see why that's an issue. Supports in pvp for attack would be excellent. If someone has both of those supports and attacks me, excellent. It means they are using thor, they also will still want to build up TU AP before they drop that hammer.

It would allow people to punch up, make PVP slightly quicker and another tool set to use against the horrible current meta.

I want supports back.

bluewolf

Last night I did one single hop - one match - with boosts and everything and still lost some points.

We do not need faster PVP matches.  The meta is extremely old and so many people are running high level (500+) versions of those characters.

Make MMR work better instead.

Many people don't like PVP anymore and Supports won't make that any better.

Cactus_Jack_87

bluewolf said:

Last night I did one single hop - one match - with boosts and everything and still lost some points.

We do not need faster PVP matches.  The meta is extremely old and so many people are running high level (500+) versions of those characters.

Make MMR work better instead.

Many people don't like PVP anymore and Supports won't make that any better.

Nice! I was hoping my hits landed! XD

AWorthyChap

OJSP said:

Perhaps supports allow a lot of players to punch much higher above their weight (newer players rely on Supports to beat Crash of the Titans, for example). Some players who are lucky enough to get 3* Yaro Root and Atlantis could start a match with 6 green APs, before Half Thor even does his thing. Hammer Cap with Sharon Carter support.. There are probably more examples.

Can we take some time to talk about how incredbily unfair and imbalanced this make PvE???  Someone with both a Yaro Root and Atlantis at Level 3 can actually start a fight with 12 green AP (5 from each support and a +2 green/black boost) and win with Thor's massive AoE on turn one.  A big Thor will do 20k+ which is often enough to down at least 1 enemy even on the 3 hard nodes....triggering a big Thanos for another 20k+.  On the first turn.  Throw in Okoye with +4 TU AP and a Royal Talon fighter and almost every hard node in the game through SCL9 can be beaten on turn 1 if all 3 of those supports hit.

The hardest nodes (all but the required 5* node) at the maximum difficulty on the highest SCL can be beaten in 1 turn....without even needing to make a match - but only by the select few people who were able to get these supports for the very brief period during which they were offered.

If the devs have truly given up on supports (as all signs seem to indicate they have) then they need to either completely remove them from the game, or just give everyone access to these supports somehow to even the playing field.  Because it's really not fair that older players that got lucky on their support draws have such a MASSIVE PvE advantage.

bluewolf

@AWorthyChap

Yep, yep, yep.

As time has marched on and Supports have been so solidly back burnered for over half a year, this situation is getting worse and worse.

Maybe Supports will get a look agai - WAIT!  A NEW KITTY SHARDS BUNDLE!  SHINY SHINY SHINY!

KGB

The whole point of PvE is unfairness. 

It's why using 2* is unfair to 1* players. Using 3* unfair to 2* players and so on.

The whole reason you upgrade your roster and supports is to gain an unfair advantage.  Lol.

KGB 

CT1888

KGB said:

The whole point of PvE is unfairness. 

It's why using 2* is unfair to 1* players. Using 3* unfair to 2* players and so on.

The whole reason you upgrade your roster and supports is to gain an unfair advantage.  Lol.

KGB 

Except you can upgrade your roster over time from 1 to 2 to 3*s by slogging out the grind, and is a driver to push through the grind, but it is practically impossible to upgrade your supports to a good level considering how few support tokens are available, especially when the ones you want are locked out of the tokens.