Character Rebalance - **** War Machine (James Rhodes) ****

IceIX

"Next time, baby." Well Rhodey, next time is here. You've been sitting in the shadows of 4-Star land for long enough, it's time to bring your Stark Industries heavy artillery to bear on the enemies of freedom with this newest character rebalance in MPQ!

We'll lead you through the changes which go from pure numbers updates to a full rework of James's Gatling Gun, making it focus on a bit of a different situation than current. On to the upgrades!

War Machine (James Rhodes) 
4-Star Rarity
Affiliations: Heroes, Avengers, Team Iron Man
    

"Skilled military pilot and friend of Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes first donned the War Machine armor after believing his friend to be dead and taking control of Stark Industries. Feeling betrayed after Tony's return, he was given the armor as a peace offering.

Adopting the identity War Machine, James Rhodes uses his piloting skills and advanced weapons systems to fight as a powerful and effective force of justice."

(Abilities listed at level 70, followed by 270)

Health and stats remain unchanged.

4446 Health / 16465 Health

 10 | 42 | 37 | 8 | 33 | 9 | 23 | 4x
 13 | 85 | 74 | 11 | 65 | 12 | 43 | 4x

OLD:
Aerial Assault - 9  AP
War Machine soars skyward to rain down bullets below! If one does not exist, create a 4-turn Red Countdown tile that deals 741 damage. While this tile is on the board, new tiles have a 15% chance of being strength 41 Attack tiles on War Machine's turn. (Max 1443 damage/strength 79 tiles)

• Level 2: New tiles have a 20% chance of being strength 55 Attack tiles. (Max strength 107 tiles)
• Level 3: Countdown tile deals 1010 damage. New tiles have a 25% chance of being strength 55 Attack tiles. (Max 1966 damage)
• Level 4: New tiles have a 25% chance of being strength 95 Attack tiles. (Max strength 182 tiles)
• Level 5: Countdown tile is Fortified. New tiles have a 33% chance of being strength 113 Attack tiles. (Max strength 219 tiles)

NEW:
Aerial Assault - 8  AP
War Machine soars skyward to rain down bullets below! If one does not exist, create a 4-turn Red Countdown tile that deals 908 damage. While this tile is on the board, new tiles have a 15% chance of being strength 41 Attack tiles on War Machine's turn. (Max 1769 damage/strength 79 tiles)

• Level 2: Countdown tile deals 1032 damage. New tiles have a 20% chance of being strength 55 Attack tiles. (Max 2010 damage/strength 107 tiles)
• Level 3: Countdown tile deals 1128 damage. New tiles have a 25% chance of being strength 65 Attack tiles. (Max 2198 damage/strength 126 tiles)
• Level 4: Countdown tile deals 1163 damage. New tiles have a 30% chance of being strength 95 Attack tiles. (Max 2266 damage/strength 182 tiles)
• Level 5: Countdown tile is Fortified and deals 1938. New tiles have a 35% chance of being strength 113 Attack tiles. (Max 3776 damage/strength 219 tiles)

The mechanics of Aerial Assault is unchanged, but it's been buffed in just about every way. The most obvious is a decrease to the AP cost for quicker use, but almost every other numeric value has also been boosted. This includes increased damage, making it almost double the strength at Level 5 when compared to it's previous version. Changes also ramps up the Attack tile chance and strength a bit more smoothly. Overall, this makes the ability pack a much stronger punch on every use, while also providing a good boost for players that are still leveling this power or those that decide not to max it out.

OLD:

Heat Signature Detection - 11  AP
War Machine activates his heat signature detection, flushing enemies out of hiding and cutting through their defenses. Removes all enemy Invisibility tiles and up to 2 enemy Protect tiles, then deals 732 damage. (Max 1425 damage)

• Level 2: Deals 1140 damage. (Max 2219 damage)
• Level 3: Can remove up to 5 enemy Protect tiles and deals 1520 damage. (Max 2958 damage)
• Level 4: Can remove up to 6 enemy Protect tiles and deals 2316 damage. (Max 4509 damage)
• Level 5: Removes all enemy Protect tiles and deals 3864 damage. (Max 7522 damage)

NEW:
Heat Signature Detection - 10  AP
War Machine activates his heat signature detection, flushing enemies out of hiding and cutting through their defenses. Removes all enemy Invisibility tiles and up to 2 enemy Protect tiles, then deals 773 damage. (Max 1505 damage)

• Level 2: Can remove up to 3 enemy Protect tiles and deals 1172 damage. (Max 2282 damage)
• Level 3: Can remove up to 5 enemy Protect tiles and deals 1560 damage. (Max 3037 damage)
• Level 4: Can remove up to 6 enemy Protect tiles and deals 2397 damage. (Max 4666 damage)
• Level 5: Removes all enemy Protect tiles and deals 4051 damage. (Max 7886 damage)

A small but effective upgrade, Heat Signature Detection also receives an AP decrease making it easier to trigger and neutralize those pesky Invisible enemies. It also introduces a smoother Protect tile removal ramp, accompanied by a small increase in damage across the board. While the ability is best used as a niche counter to certain enemy types, it now also has slightly increased utility all around.

OLD:
Gatling Gun - 8  AP
War Machine revs up his Gatling gun and prepares for destruction. Creates up to 2 2-turn Countdown tiles that deal 301 damage and destroy up to 2 random basic or Team-Up tiles around them, dealing damage but not generating AP. (Max 586 damage)

• Level 2: Countdown tiles deal 389 damage and destroy up to 3 basic tiles around them. (Max 757 damage)
  
• Level 3: Countdown tiles deal 486 damage and destroy up to 4 basic tiles around them. (Max 947 damage)
  
• Level 4: Countdown tiles last 1 turn and deal 632 damage. (Max 1230 damage)
  
• Level 5: Creates 3 Countdown tiles that destroy up to 5 basic tiles around them.

NEW:
Gatling Gun - 8  AP
War Machine revs up his Gatling gun and prepares for destruction. Destroy 6 non-friendly tiles in two random adjacent rows and deal 38 damage per tile destroyed. Destroyed tiles do not generate AP or deal other damage. (Max 75 damage)

• Level 2: Destroys 7 tiles. Deals 62 damage per tile destroyed. (Max 123 damage)
  
• Level 3: Destroys 8 tiles. Deals 79 damage per tile destroyed. (Max 156 damage)
  
• Level 4: Destroys 9 tiles. Deals 120 damage per tile destroyed. (Max 237 damage)
  
• Level 5: Destroys 10 tiles. Deals 203 damage per tile destroyed. (Max 401 damage)

Gatling Gun is amongst one of the least used abilities, showing that it could definitely use a little more power. With relatively low damage per Countdown tile and random placement, it wasn't really exciting to use. At the very best, it could do around 3000 damage if all 3 tiles somehow blew up 15 Red tiles which was... unlikely. The updated ability alters the functionality a bit, turning it into a power that is a bit more niche in use, but becoming much more powerful and targeted within that niche. Dealing damage for each non-friendly tile it happens to find in the two rows, this ability now works as a fairly cheap destroyer of tile spammers like Carnage, but also a possibility of a hail mary approach when you've got a dangerous CD tile hanging out that you just can't otherwise reach.

This latest character update is scheduled for the normal server update on Valentine's Day (2/14)! So make a date and get ready to take this upgraded Stark tech armor out for a ride!

Omegased

Interesting, I loved his old green when paired with c4rol. 

Keen to try but at this stage not sure why it occurred?

My bet is we're about to get a heap of invis characters....

ThaRoadWarrior

I always thought, and subsequently used, Gatling Gun as a cascade generator after you put down his red CD so that the board would drop in a bunch of attack tiles. This seems like an across the board improvement; as ever I remain curious about why this one as opposed to a Frost or a Talos, but happy to see rebalances nonetheless. Does gatling gun still not gain boosted damage from Wakanda Forever/Shared Strength even though it does a fixed slug of damage not tied to the tile match damage?

Historically, 4* rebalances got a System Reboot event, is that by chance going to run with this? Just curious.

Vhailorx

Meh. He is marginally better now. Maybe a top 75 4*?  Woohoo!

Direct effect on the green is good and far and away the best thing here, but the other two powers get only trivial improvement.

And I agree roadwarrior: the point of WM was to cast red and then green to shake the board and feed attack tiles into play.  He will do that a bit worse now (10 tiles instead of 18 per cast, though with immediate effect).  And the tiles won't be any stronger and there won't be many more of them.  That's disappointing.

I would like to have seen red become genuinely cheap, like 5 or 6 ap, even if the damage went down. It makes me think they don't really understand how to play WM at all.

Finally, is my math wrong? Why do they say old green struggled to do 3k damage?  Don't the 3 CDs alone do 3.6k before counting tile destruction?

Tl;Dr: this wasn't worth the dev time spent in the rework.

entrailbucket

I always found it hilarious that War Machine blue is supposed to be, like, him scanning his radar, and for some reason it's this insane nuke.  I think at 370 + boosted it hits for like 50,000 or something insane.  That's some powerful radar!

The buff is fine.  It doesn't move him up that much but it's a little bit.

Borstock

Have to admit, I don't get it. Is he really a viable anti-specials character, now?

I don't know how many 4's we have, but if old WM was (random num) the 100th best 4* in the game, does this buff make him 90? Maybe?

I'm happy about the buff, but I think I would've rather they just added a bunch of health and called it a day.

Seph1roth5

Seems like the numbers went up negligibly.   Maybe if their AP cost was reduced by like...3 instead of 1, he'd be top 75 THEN.

HoundofShadow

I like his old green better because it can potentially creates more cascades. I never use it for damage, but for his red power. The new green looks similar to 5* Captain Marvel's green power, except that it's capped at two adjacent rows. 

This is definitely not a popular choice of rebalance for some players. On the other hand, I believe there are some players who are happy with these changes.

dianetics

I liked his old green after popping his red, but the new green should achieve the same effect.
The red seems to be much better.
Blue is basically the same.
I think the only time I will be bringing him along is when either Legion or IW are on deck. So, it doesn't really change much from a usage perspective.

Phumade

this buff is meh.  It doesn't really make him better against most opponents, but it also doesn't hurt his value against invisible targets.  If they wanted to really improve his utility, they should have allowed him to target Airborne chars like 5* Archangel.  That would have been a tangible improvement and made him a viable counter against a limited but powerful set of chars like ikaris, gwenpoole, etc...

Vhailorx

dianetics said:

I liked his old green after popping his red, but the new green should achieve the same effect.
The red seems to be much better.
Blue is basically the same.
I think the only time I will be bringing him along is when either Legion or IW are on deck. So, it doesn't really change much from a usage perspective.

How is red much better?  It does more damage, but if you are using his red for damage you are doing it wrong. It takes 4 turns to resolve and is less efficient than imhb red even post-buff.  The attack tiles are the only reason to use his red and all they got was a 2% buff to spawn rare.  2%!

It's like this buff was done by someone who only sort of understands mpq and has never played WM. All the player usage data in the world is useless if you don't understand what it's telling you. I really don't want to be mean to the devsb I'm sure they tried their best and worked hard on this rework; i am just baffled by this outcome.

jredd

Why don't you rebalance characters that are actually bad? there's a few. we can tell you which ones...

dianetics

Less AP, more damage, and pairing it with his new green it is a lot better.
Like I said though, I will only bring him around fighting specific characters to remove them from invis.
This slight buff doesn't turn him into anything better or a must have or a character to build around.

Thanos

Funny, the new 5* characters are mostly **** while the new 4* characters are pretty good, conversely, the 5* character rebalances have been pretty good while the 4* rebalances have been meh. Makes you go hmmm...

ThaRoadWarrior

Also interesting: this 9 red AP power got buffed to make it more firable by making it cost 8, and Electra just got released with a 9ap red…

id say this is a Ghost Rider level rebalance: two good changes and one that disrupts the original point in a way that makes it the obvious dumpstat.

LavaManLee

jredd said:

Why don't you rebalance characters that are actually bad? there's a few. we can tell you which ones...

Totally agree.  Don't understand why any time was spent on War Machine at all.  It's like the devs don't quite play the game the same way we do.  Was there anyone out there crying for a War Machine rebalance?

HoundofShadow

They know who are actually bad. Here's their reply from another character rebalance thread:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/973411/#Comment_973411

It's possible. We have a list of characters we'd like to rebalance but we're not necessarily just pulling the bottom character off that list (or you'd have seen Wasp/Banner before now). So the order is somewhat more random seeming.

So, they are aware of what they are doing. 

Vhailorx

HoundofShadow said:

They know who are actually bad. Here's their reply from another character rebalance thread:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/973411/#Comment_973411

It's possible. We have a list of characters we'd like to rebalance but we're not necessarily just pulling the bottom character off that list (or you'd have seen Wasp/Banner before now). So the order is somewhat more random seeming.

So, they are aware of what they are doing. 

do they though? Sure they can identify the two most famously bad 5*s in the game. but all of the editorial commentary in this latest series of reworks suggests to me that they are relying heavily on usage data, and that definitely has its limits.

And even if they identify the weak characters, do they know why they are weak? I haven't seen a lot of evidence from these reworks that they are doing much more than looking as a list of low-usage character and nudging ap costs down by 1 and bumping damage numbers up by a few percent. The change to WM's green is the biggest mechanical change yet and it seems at least partially misguided (why focus on damage when the point of the power is boardshake? there is arguably less boardshake now!).

tonypq

After they rebalanced 5*JG I thought they might finally be on the right path for rebalancing, then we get this let down of sorts. I thought they did a pretty good job with JG although many wish they helped her countdown out which would have been nice.

As far as WM would it really have been bad to knock down the AP cost on red/blue by 2 or 3 AP ? Red at 7 isn't OP and blue at 9 would seem ok. Talk about splicing hairs with this rebalance. I agree with some others to do this little feels like a waste of dev time that could be better spent on something else, or simply have done a little more with the rebalance. If they are doing away with features even as trivial as they may have been like introduction events to work on some rebalancing, it's sad we get a rather weak attempt as we have here. A rebalance that barely moves the needle is probably one that isn't worth implementing in the first place. 

There are so many more characters 4 and 5 that desperately need a rebalance more than WM did. I applaud the effort for D3 to actually show intent to actually make rebalance a thing, but like other aspects of this game it seems like they have a severe lack of direction. It's going to get ugly when they give one character a much better facelift  and then barely improve others with no rhyme or reason.

HoundofShadow

It boils down to design philosophy. The dev's philosophy is generally this: pick three characteristics and translates them into in-game mechanics. Given that all characters have more than 3 characteristics, the choices of power designs can be influenced by dev's preferences, current state of the meta game and whether any shakeup is needed. Design is a subjective matter because it depends on one's biases/preferences. 

I think the forum players' philosophy are: ap cost must be cheap (<9aps), deal high damage, has low risk,  repeaters or cd must be 1-turn and fortified, easy to use (whether one can netflix while matching) etc.

The goal of rebalances is not to make them meta, but rather to make them more usable, and retaining those design characteristics if possible, based on past rebalances. Again, "More usable" can be subjective, depending on the criteria one uses. 

Also, who were the target audience for? It's definitely not for players looking for better anti-Polaris character or a meta replacement. 

We need to acknowledge that we all have biases. Just because they didn't buff Talos or Emma Frost first doesn't mean they are out of touch. We are blinded by our own biases. For me, I rather they buff Karnak by removing his protect tile, than reworking Emma or Talos. Doing that has a bigger impact.

entrailbucket

Wanting characters to be good at winning fights is not some bizarre personal bias in a game where the goal of every mode is to win fights.