Character Updates - 4* Iceman (All New X-Men) / 5* Kingpin (Spider-Verse) (Live 1/31)

IceIX

Iceman (All New X-Men)
Whiteout - 12 Green AP -> 8 Green AP
Reduced damage in-line with the new AP cost for roughly the same damage/AP.

This ability is decent as it is, and is often used as a decent nuke if there are enough Blue tiles on the board and the team doesn't have a stronger Green AoE available. However, at 12 AP, it often turns into just a basic finishing ability compared to something that can be used throughout the battle. Updating the AP cost should help make this happen.
Old->New values
Level 1 370/33 -> 247/22 (Max: 722/64 -> 482/43)
Level 2 518/46 -> 346/31 (Max: 1011/90 -> 675/60)
Level 3 666/59 -> 445/40 (Max: 1300/115 -> 868/77)
Level 4 962/86 -> 642/57 (Max: 1877/166 -> 1253/112)
Level 5 1554/139 -> 1037/92 (Max: 3032/269 -> 2024/181)

Build/Punch a Snowman - 6/6 Blue AP
Unchanged. This ability is already pretty close to a permastun, and with another 6 Blue AP can do some great single target damage (especially for a Blue ability). No reason to mess with it.

Cold As Ice - 8 Purple AP
Added an Affiliation based Passive:
(PASSIVE) Reduce damage taken from matches and abilities by 5/8/13/17/25% for all Time Displaced X-Men on the team.

This adds in some decent tanking for not only himself (Iceman is a notorious tank with his self-healing icy body), but also some protection to other Time Displaced All New X-Men (Teen Jean and Angel at this point). It has the knock on that it ALSO affects characters like Cable and Bishop, which we're fine with. Iceman's just there to help.




Kingpin (Spider-Verse)
Health and Match Damage has been updated to better reflect current generation 5-Stars.
14356/57701 -> 20200/81192 Health

Forced Hand - 7 Blue AP
Increased damage to match newer generation 5-Stars. Removed the requirement to have less than 4 AP to deal damage, but instead reduces damage dealt for each AP drained. These changes cumulatively result in about 100% increased damage, or roughly the same damage if it reduces all 4 HP.
New ability reads:
Kingpin makes the enemy an offer they can't refuse. Choose a Friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tile to give to the enemy team. In return, drain 4 AP in your strongest color from the enemy and deal 4851 damage, minus 693 damage per AP drained. (Max 19497/2787 damage)

• Level 2: 5336/762 damage (Max 21447/3066 damage)
• Level 3: 5851/832 damage (Max 23396/3344 damage)
• Level 4: 6791/970 damage, drains 5 AP (Max 27296/3902 damage)
• Level 5: 8732/1247 damage (Max 35095/5017 damage)

The ability had a strong thematic feel; Kingpin gives with one hand, and takes away with the other if you can't pay the price. But what it turned into in practice was an ability that was only usable super early in a match when the enemy has no AP, or at super niche situations where the enemy just used almost all theirs and you can afford the SAP tile destruction to use it. This keeps the thematic feel, but adds more damage if the target can't pay the piper. After all, you can still work without kneecaps, right?

The Harder They Fall - 11 Black AP -> 8 Black AP
Redesigned to keep the theme but be more generally useful. Now reads as:
Kingpin undercuts an upstart opponent. Destroys up to 8 AP in the opponent’s largest AP pool and increases the power of the Passive by 3/3/4/4/5% (up to 80%) for each AP destroyed.
(PASSIVE) Kingpin laughs at the attacks of his puny opponents. Kingpin’s allies take 30/35/35/40/50% less match damage.

This ability was fine when it came out, but has since been heavily outclassed by other abilities that do everything it does and better. It still doesn't reduce ability damage, so it's not a one stop shop, but it provides a pretty strong buff to the team at the outset, and can get better when used during combat.

Break Their Will - 9 Green AP
Increased the damage and Attack tile strength to bring it in-line with current 5-Stars. Removed the AP requirement for the Attack tile generation. Added a new Affiliation based Passive. New ability reads:
Kingpin loses his composure and launches into a relentless wave of pummels. Creates a 2-turn Fortified Repeater tile that deals 1639 damage and create 3 strength 47 Attack tiles.

(PASSIVE) At the start of the battle, for each Hero on the team, add 1 strength 47 Protect tile. For each Villain on the team, add 1 strength 47 Strike tile. (Max 6588 damage / strength 191 tiles)

• Level 2: 1896 damage / strength 52 tiles (Max 7623 damage / strength 210 tiles)
• Level 3: 2069 damage / strength 62 tiles (Max 8316 damage / strength 251 tiles)
• Level 4: 2414 damage / strength 87 tiles (Max 9702 damage / strength 352 tiles)
• Level 5: 3103 damage / strength 156 tiles (Max 12474 damage / strength 634 tiles)

This ability was another one that had some really cool flavor, but didn't work out well in practice. As a result, it was tough to get any of Kingpin's abilities set up in a way that he'd be truly powerful. This change will make the ability more generally useful (and that Repeater gets scary! Deals 12474 damage at 450 level 5!). It also adds an Affiliation Passive that allows him to make use of whoever he has at hand to create an early game advantage; A very Kingpin thing to do.