Lockjaw Character Update (Live 12/16/21)

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  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    HoundofShadow said:
    It matters to them and it's a problem that almost every games face this. 

    I think it's similar to answering the question "Does saving the earth matter to you?" Your answer would likely to be yes, but chances are you are not going to set time aside specifically for it because you have other more urgent and important things to do in your life. If someone invite you to volunteer for such activities, you will probably answer, "Let me check if I've the time for it."

    I think that's the same situation with rebalancing characters.

    There are like 100+ 4* characters, why is saving this particular one from obscurity so important? Why is saving ANY of them? We will have a whole other bunch coming along anyway! This is the equivalent to "Hmm, this flavour of crisps are not selling well, should we do something about it?"
    There is one Earth (not counting the Multiverse).
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    Maybe someone in the team loves dog? Or maybe they simply run a script to pick one out of the list randomly. Or it's because they want to make Medusa/Blackbolt/Lockjaw node harder? 

    I remember they do have some wacky ideas or ways of doing things sometimes. Anyway, I remember there are at least two earths.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,454 Chairperson of the Boards
    Well, I've stated my own "pet" theory that it's likely more of a PVE AI friendly change the way Kingpin's was than something that a player will resonate with as to why Lockjaw. As for why now, we just saw Royal Family get run, and I know I blasted through it with an unchamped Shang-Chi in no time at all, with a 1/2/2 required Ultron, so in my mind it's highly possible this was a way to make the nodes lockjaw is featured on more challenging without adjusting more popular/contentious characters like Medusa, Polaris, Blad3, or Black Bolt. But that is rampant speculation on my part lol
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    I remember another node that features Lockjaw and Polaris? If they buff or rebalance Blackbolt next, we can confirm that theory.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,454 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yes, there is I believe a 3* required node that is Lockjaw/Polaris/Blad3, which is a strong team for that tier of play, but relatively trivial if you are able to get through SCL10 comfortably. Royal Family can still catch you out because it may or may not feature a useful 5* as a required. 

    Black Bolt is a pretty well designed character who is just old, so if he does get touched again I'd hope it was just a health/damage bump. I wouldn't turn away an AP cost reduction, but he does have a built in battery in the form of his passive charge tile creation that makes it not that bad to use him in practice.
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    I’m not sure how the Lockjaw boost will protect the Royal Family from Shang-Chi. Maybe if he started jumping out in front when charged tiles were matched. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    Lockjaw's most amazing power is his ability to teleport in Black Bolt, Medusa etc after you have already killed them. Does he have a store of duplicates somewhere? Possibly he made a deal with Mister Sinister.
    If I was Lockjaw I would just teleport Shang Chi out like to the top of a cliff or something.
    Also - can we like get Crystal in game - we'll need her for when we get the inevitable Black Knight release for a love triangle with Sersi.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,454 Chairperson of the Boards
    Sekilicious said:
    I’m not sure how the Lockjaw boost will protect the Royal Family from Shang-Chi. Maybe if he started jumping out in front when charged tiles were matched. 
    It may not, but we have long seen conservative counter attempts hit the game, and it just kind of feels like it might be that to me. 
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,828 Chairperson of the Boards
    HoundofShadow said:
    It matters to them and it's a problem that almost every games face this. 

    I think it's similar to answering the question "Does saving the earth matter to you?" Your answer would likely to be yes, but chances are you are not going to set time aside specifically for it because you have other more urgent and important things to do in your life. If someone invite you to volunteer for such activities, you will probably answer, "Let me check if I've the time for it."

    I think that's the same situation with rebalancing characters.
    So, here you're answering the yes/no question that I posed with a "yes" (followed by a bunch of qualifiers and other stuff).

    My point in all of this is: we don't actually know that the answer is yes!

    A number of people seem to think that the reason they don't update characters is not that they don't have time or that it's low on the priority list, but because *they don't care* if characters go unused, or that some characters are actually designed to go unused, and that outcome is desired.
  • Bad
    Bad Posts: 3,146 Chairperson of the Boards
    Also we, as experimented players, can support with our feedback or our knowledge and say a 4* is very bad(a 4* DOA is a unlikely event to be fair). Possibly if there is consensus we actually are right. 
    Ok, but then according to their metrics lockjaw fall behind the worst 4*.
    That is the valid proof for devs and it's something that they can react to.
    We can be right when we say a particular 4* is bad but if there is people playing him then there is no need to change that character, guessing in the devs shoes.
  • TriSentinel
    TriSentinel Posts: 139 Tile Toppler
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    Hobofist is good actually, he just has that laughable Finn Jones art on him is all. 

    Surely Talos is the least used 4* though? Though I would say Spider-Ham is possibly the worst designed 4*
    Talos would be the least used character if there weren't some PVEs requiring him. At best he plays like a 2*.
  • OzarkBoatswain
    OzarkBoatswain Posts: 693 Critical Contributor
    Lockjaw wasn't bad to begin with and these changes have zero drawbacks, so he's still be good. I like the cheaper blue power.

    It's interesting that in the blue power, the Quake and Crystal effects got boosted more than the others. I never used them before and I'll at least try them out now.
  • Captain_Trips88
    Captain_Trips88 Posts: 268 Mover and Shaker
    In terms of rebalances I think simply bringing older character's match damage / health / AP costs in line with recent characters makes more sense as a step 1. Will it make those characters get used more? I doubt it but it feels like a quick fix (quicker than tweaking individual powers) and it might bring some interest for vets to take a look at those characters again, and will also benefit new players if they are unlucky to pull those older ones.

    They can then start "fixing" any characters whose powers have no place in the game - looking at you Emma 
  • captainheath
    captainheath Posts: 255 Mover and Shaker
    They should somehow monetize the update process to make it worthwhile for everyone.

    1.  Instead of 4/5/4/5, do at least 4/5/4/5/Update Squad
    2.  On the fifth week, update four characters:  1 3-star, 2 4-stars, and 1 5-star.  (Or something like this.)
    3.  The characters involved will receive the same boost, or more, than the new releases get for a longer period of time than one week.
    4.  Have a vault or pull store that gives out the updated toons with maybe just shards for the 5-star.

    It would take them years to go through this process without running out of toons to update.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    I remember they did an update to certain tier due to some big changes in the game. Was it due to 5* or championing? We probably need such catalyst.  B)

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