Character Rebalance - 4* Ant-Man (Scott Lang) (Live 2/16)

IceIX

Just in time for the premiere of Ant-Man: Quantumania, we've got reworks for three (sometimes) ant sized characters! These reworks make them work a bit better together, and in the case of Wasp and Wasp, actually usable together. Let's get right to it, here's Scott!

Ant-Man (Scott Lang)
Pym Particles - 9 Purple AP
Ant-Man uses Pym Particles to shrink down and cause pint-sized chaos. Creates a Purple Locked Swarm tile.

(PASSIVE) At the start of the turn, for each Purple Swarm tile on the board, create 2 strength 26 Purple Attack tile(s). While a Purple Swarm tile is on the board, Pym Particles and Small Time Crooks become Grow. Purple Swarm tiles have a 75% chance to be recreated when Matched or Destroyed.(Max level strength 51)

• Level 2: Creates 2 strength 43 Attack tiles. (Max level strength 84)
• Level 3: Creates 2 strength 55 Attack tiles. (Max level strength 107)
• Level 4: Creates 3 strength 55 Attack tiles. (Max level strength 107)
• Level 5: Creates 3 strength 85 Attack tiles. (Max level strength 167)

Updated to create Purple Swarm tiles instead of a Purple Trap tile. Balancing is otherwise unchanged. This makes his Pym Particles tiles have a much better chance of surviving as while it is now visible, it can't be overwritten, and has a chance of recreating itself on destruction. It also, not coincidentally, provides synergy with Wasp's Swarm tiles. There's also a knock on here where it can be "semi-cast" by Wasp placing a Swarm onto a purple tile, swapping Ant-Man's size and immediately enabling Grow.

Small Time Crooks - 9 Blue AP
Ant-Man hops on the back of Ant-Thony and infiltrates the enemy's base to stage a miniature heist. Creates a 3-turn Blue Locked Swarm tile.

(PASSIVE) At the start of the turn, for each Blue Swarm tile on the board, steal 1 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tile(s). While a Blue Swarm tile is on the board, Pym Particles and Small Time Crooks become Grow. For every 2 Swarm tiles (rounded up) on the board, Ant-Man's ability costs are reduced by 1 (up to 1).

• Level 2: Creates a 4-turn Countdown tile.
• Level 3: Creates a 5-turn Countdown tile. Lowers ability costs up to 2.
• Level 4: Steals 2 enemy SAP tiles.
• Level 5: Steals 3 enemy SAP tiles.

An interesting one, this uses both a Countdown and Swarm tile, so it is affected by abilities that affect either/both. It's kept the same balance level just like Pym Particles, but has picked up an additional piece to the ability that lowers his ability costs while multiple Swarms are on the board. It's only up to 2 AP, but it could change an 18 total AP Grow into a 14, which isn't nothing.

Grow - 9 Blue AP
Grow - 9 Purple AP
Ant-Man leaps towards his enemy, restoring himself to full-size in midair to deliver a haymaker. Remove all Blue and Purple Swarm tiles and deal 1250 damage to the target. Grow reverts to its previous form.

(PASSIVE) Pym Particles and Small Time Crooks Passives continue to function. (Max level 2435 damage)

• Level 2: Deals 1750 damage. (Max level 3409 damage)
• Level 3: Deals 2250 damage. (Max level 4383 damage)
• Level 4: Deals 3250 damage. (Max level 6331 damage)
• Level 5: Deals 5250 damage. (Max level 10227 damage)

No change here other than flipping forms with Swarm tiles rather than the old tiles and specifying that the Passives keep working (which they did, it just wasn't clear)

Ants! Ants! Ants! - 7 Yellow AP
Ant-Man commands an army of ants to swarm his foes, biting them all over. Creates 3 3-turn Locked Red Swarm tiles. When these expire, they create a strength 37 Yellow Strike tile.

(PASSIVE) At the beginning of each turn, deal 46 damage for each Red Swarm tile. (Max level 72 strength/90 damage)

• Level 2: Creates 3 tiles that create strength 43 Strike tiles. Ant-Man deals 69 damage per tile each turn. (Max level 83 strength/135 damage)
• Level 3: Creates 3 tiles that create strength 57 Strike tiles. Ant-Man deals 97 damage per tile each turn. (Max level 112 strength/189 damage)
• Level 4: Creates 4 tiles that create strength 67 Strike tiles. Ant-Man deals 97 damage per tile each turn. (Max level 130 strength/189 damage)
• Level 5: Creates 5 tiles that create strength 74 Strike tiles. Ant-Man deals 133 damage per tile each turn. (Max level 144 strength/261 damage)

Also shifted into hybrid Countdown/Swarm tiles, this ability otherwise acts the same as always. The Strike tile strength has also been increased slightly, but is still more of a secondary effect compared to the Attack tile-like damage from the created Ants themselves.

Also, sneak preview of an imminent costume for Scott!

ShionSinX

Purple: makes a purple Swarm tile.
Blue: makes a blue Swarm tile.
Yellow: makes a ye... red Swarm tile?

Reminds me of the Mindless ones. Red makes red strikes, yellow makes yellow protects and purple makes pu... black attack tiles

Omegased

Seems good. one question tho, will Countdown swarm tiles interact the same as regular countdown tiles?

I'm thinking for characters like, OBW, or (more specifically) C4rol, drax, Abagail, etc?

ShionSinX

@Omegased said:
Seems good. one question tho, will Countdown swarm tiles interact the same as regular countdown tiles?
I'm thinking for characters like, OBW, or (more specifically) C4rol, drax, Abagail, etc?

I would assume so, as its written there:

An interesting one, this uses both a Countdown and Swarm tile, so it is affected by abilities that affect either/both.

DAZ0273

Ant Man seems better for this on the very brief play I just did.

Bowgentle

It's a bit weird that he started making swarm tiles in the middle of pvp lol.

DAZ0273

Hmm...these Swarm tiles are a slightly mixed bag in that you can use the enemy produced one to supercharge getting Grow to fire but they can also use them against you in Ant Man's Pvp. Still, his purple is a million times better.

Punisher5784

I do not like these Swarm tiles because they're helping the enemy Ant-Man in his PvP. I fired purple and to my surprise it made enemy attack tiles.. glad I spent 9 purple to help the enemy. I preferred his Trap tile, it was one of the better ones in the game

KGB

@ShionSinX said:

@Omegased said:
Seems good. one question tho, will Countdown swarm tiles interact the same as regular countdown tiles?
I'm thinking for characters like, OBW, or (more specifically) C4rol, drax, Abagail, etc?

I would assume so, as its written there:

An interesting one, this uses both a Countdown and Swarm tile, so it is affected by abilities that affect either/both.

I also wonder how this is affected by JThor and Kitty. Do they just over write the CD part or do they destroy the swarm tile too?

Anyone know if JThors passive destroys Swarm tiles?

KGB

Bad

A buffed Ant-Man now hits pretty hard with those red swarms.
Add SW or Emma and he could win the battle just by himself.
So the rebalance helps him a lot on the 4* tier.
Swarm tiles by the way are characters tiles like chasm and Mthor doesn't target them.

allen_koholic

So, it's impossible to read the turns left on the CD tile. Maybe make it possible to tell how many turns are left on countdown tile. That seems like it's kinda important.

IceIX

@allen_koholic said:
So, it's impossible to read the turns left on the CD tile. Maybe make it possible to tell how many turns are left on countdown tile. That seems like it's kinda important.

Currently, you can tap the tile (or mouse over on PC) to see the turns. This will be fixed in future.

Tiger_Wong

Has anybody been able to steal strike/attack/shield tiles with his new blue power? I haven’t stolen anything, yet I get the “grow” banner each turn.

fractalvisions

@Tiger_Wong said:
Has anybody been able to steal strike/attack/shield tiles with his new blue power? I haven’t stolen anything, yet I get the “grow” banner each turn.

Yes, I noticed issues with the blue power not actually stealing any SAPs. At least not all the time. I'm sure it did actually work for the enemy Ant-Man at some point.

I also agree with Punisher5784 that it seems rather counterproductive and illogical that the enemy can make use of friendly swarm tiles. How can one Ant-Man grow when it was the other one that shrank? There really needs to be away to distinguish the friendly swarm from the enemy swarm.

Punisher5784

@fractalvisions said:

@Tiger_Wong said:
Has anybody been able to steal strike/attack/shield tiles with his new blue power? I haven’t stolen anything, yet I get the “grow” banner each turn.

Yes, I noticed issues with the blue power not actually stealing any SAPs. At least not all the time. I'm sure it did actually work for the enemy Ant-Man at some point.

I also agree with Punisher5784 that it seems rather counterproductive and illogical that the enemy can make use of friendly swarm tiles. How can one Ant-Man grow when it was the other one that shrank? There really needs to be away to distinguish the friendly swarm from the enemy swarm.

I haven't even used Antman's powers against the enemy Ant-Man because I would help them, so as soon as the enemy drops their swarm, I use mine to hit them with Grow. Almost like playing 3* QS vs QS waiting for the last locked tile before matching blue

Borstock

I climbed the Ant-Man PvP without ever firing one of his powers. It was just easier to completely ignore him.

HoundofShadow

This boost week pvp is all about Wanda/Okoye. Match teamup and you'll be dealing tons of damage.

Yellow -> Okoye
Blue -> Wanda
Purple -> Antman

Out of 17 wins, I fired Antman's purple only twice.

LavaManLee

@Borstock said:
I climbed the Ant-Man PvP without ever firing one of his powers. It was just easier to completely ignore him.

This. Neither I nor my opponent was ever able to fire an Ant Man power.

entrailbucket

I used Hawkeye/Kang for funsies and mostly had no problems dealing with 550 SW/Okoye, over and over again. Ant-Man yellow was the key.

Even though enemy Ant-Man gets to make use of those tiles, and even though enemy Okoye boosts them, and even though enemy SW reflects the damage back at you...

Once the ant CD tiles resolve the game is basically over. If you can get to 9 blue beforehand you just shelve SW and then you're in no danger at all while waiting. I wiped twice, I think, just from nasty TU cascades.

Tiger_Wong

Antman’s blue still not stealing SAPs. Working as intended?

Punisher5784

@Tiger_Wong said:
Antman’s blue still not stealing SAPs. Working as intended?

I'm pretty sure it stole for me yesterday during his PvP