Marvel Puzzle Quest: Character Rebalances - Batch #1

If you’ve been playing Marvel Puzzle Quest lately, you’ve probably noticed the same handful of characters dominating nearly every match. While strong characters are fun, when the meta feels predictable, creativity and strategy take a hit. To keep the game exciting and strategic, we’re planning a shake up with batched rebalances. Rather than making sweeping changes all at once, each batch will feature a variety of buffs for underused characters and carefully considered adjustments to one dominant character.
These tweaks aren’t about punishing players who’ve invested time building top-tier teams, they’re about creating more opportunities for strategy and variety across the roster. By carefully nerfing some of these top characters, we can reduce overreliance on a single character while keeping them strong and viable. At the same time, buffs for underused heroes and villains will encourage experimentation and make the game feel fresh.
Set to roll out with the start of the next PvP season on October 16th, here’s the first batch of characters we’ll be adjusting in this initial wave of rebalances.
Rebalance Batch #1
Nerf
4-Stars: Polaris (Lorna Dane)
Easily the character that comes to mind for the first nerf is Polaris as she consistently dominates across nearly every aspect of the game. We want to make sure players got a deep dive into Polaris’ nerfs since there’s a ton to digest so IceIX has put together an in-depth overview of all the rebalances that went into Polaris with numbers and a few notes into how we landed on these changes.
Head on over to our Character Rebalances - Polaris (Lorna Dane) 4-Star forum post for full details.
Buffs
These buffs will primarily be delivered through direct numerical adjustments. In certain cases, additional changes may be made, but to efficiently strengthen multiple characters at once, adjusting the numbers proved to be the most effective way for our development team to implement large-scale buffs.
5-Stars: Iron Man (Mark XLVI), Jeffrey (Symbiote), Peggy Carter (Worthy), Rescue (Pepper Potts)
4-Stars: Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile), Doctor Bong (Lester Verde), Drax (The Destroyer), Peni Parker (Spider-Bot BFF)
3-Stars: Miles Morales (Spider-Fit), Peggy Carter (Iron Carter), Ragnarok (Dark Avengers), Sentry (Dark Avengers)
2-Stars: Captain America (Steve Rogers), Moonstone (Dark Avengers)
1-Star: Hawkeye (Classic)
We’ll have more news on Batch #2 after we see how the current set of changes play out in the post-rebalance meta. Our goal is to ensure these meta reshuffles are fair, thoughtful, and ultimately lead to a better Marvel Puzzle Quest experience for everyone so please let us know your thoughts about other characters or team compositions you think need a tune-up!
Comments
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Huh, just Polaris, weird.
That's a lot of buffs though! Very welcome news.
2 -
Curious to find out if the rebalance will fix Iron May's ascension issue. Will the 5* be better(like you would think) than the 4*?
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@WilliamK1983 said:
Curious to find out if the rebalance will fix Iron May's ascension issue. Will the 5* be better(like you would think) than the 4*?That's not an issue, that's balance.
They said from the beginning that characters would change to compensate for being 5 star.Iron May gives that huge buff, but she is easily killed by 5 star match damage. If she kept that big buff AND got upgraded health, match damage, and power damage she would be extremely OP.
5 -
@WilliamK1983 said:
Curious to find out if the rebalance will fix Iron May's ascension issue. Will the 5* be better(like you would think) than the 4*?May isn't on this list...maybe you're thinking she'll be in part 2?
0 -
this was the meeting to tell you about the meeting, wasn't it?
4 -
An increase to Peggy even though she's still not functioning properly
Thanks?
Sorry this seems negative, a damage increase is of course welcome
4 -
I guess it's back to Shang Chi and MThor for a lot of people. Lol.
2 -
It's nice that they are addressing some of the characters with comically awful damage, but because they have been awful forever (excepting Ragnarok once being the meta many moons ago) it's hard to get excited yet - who knows, could be good?
I'd really like them to give 1 star Hawkeye an actual power adjustment though e.g. tacking some damage on them, because frankly even if they gave him Juggernaut health he's simply not worth a slot on any team.
2 -
Way to kill the game with Polaris nerf, yet doesn't mighty Thor doesnt get touch . Ridiculous, one foot out the door this game is a mess . It's funny you allow 5 star characters pound on the lower rosters, but don't allow any 4 star characters punch their way up.
4 -
@ThisisClemFandango said:
An increase to Peggy even though she's still not functioning properlyThanks?
Sorry this seems negative, a damage increase is of course welcome
Why isn't Peggy functioning properly?
0 -
@TheVulture said:
It's nice that they are addressing some of the characters with comically awful damage, but because they have been awful forever (excepting Ragnarok once being the meta many moons ago) it's hard to get excited yet - who knows, could be good?I'd really like them to give 1 star Hawkeye an actual power adjustment though e.g. tacking some damage on them, because frankly even if they gave him Juggernaut health he's simply not worth a slot on any team.
I don't think they have a choice with Hawkeye -- they can't just give him a numbers buff because he doesn't have any numbers that can be increased currently.
0 -
@Scorpion201 said:
Way to kill the game with Polaris nerf, yet doesn't mighty Thor doesnt get touch . Ridiculous, one foot out the door this game is a mess . It's funny you allow 5 star characters pound on the lower rosters, but don't allow any 4 star characters punch their way up.I'm sorry but anyone who doesn't think Polaris is a HUGE issue in this game has no regard whatsoever for having a fun and balanced game and only wants to win in the cheapest way possible.
8 -
@Bustapup said:
@ThisisClemFandango said:
An increase to Peggy even though she's still not functioning properlyThanks?
Sorry this seems negative, a damage increase is of course welcome
Why isn't Peggy functioning properly?
Not my words, BCS's words
Apparently she isnt working as they planned her to
I'll see if I can find it0 -
Disagree their plenty of good Polaris counters, cheap wins can be said about mighty thor. Polaris and juggernaut, rocket help me make quick work in pve.
1 -
@entrailbucket said:
@TheVulture said:
It's nice that they are addressing some of the characters with comically awful damage, but because they have been awful forever (excepting Ragnarok once being the meta many moons ago) it's hard to get excited yet - who knows, could be good?I'd really like them to give 1 star Hawkeye an actual power adjustment though e.g. tacking some damage on them, because frankly even if they gave him Juggernaut health he's simply not worth a slot on any team.
I don't think they have a choice with Hawkeye -- they can't just give him a numbers buff because he doesn't have any numbers that can be increased currently.
He does have the worst tier of health of the 1a5 brigade, so they could just fix that and call it a day...
Mine aren't quite maxed yet, but roughly:
225k Juggernaut
175k Venom
150k Iron Man, Spider-Man
105k Black Widow, Yelena
90k Storm, Hawkeye
I guess once upon a time the ability to destroy countdowns was considered over-powered, or someone just had a bee in their bonnet that Hawkeye being street level meant he should have 'civilian' health levels.0 -
"Easily the character that comes to mind for the first nerf is Polaris as she consistently dominates across nearly every aspect of the game."
Beg to disagree, and I say this as someone with a 4a5 Polaris, among others, with multiple 550s and who Champions every 5 before they leave Latest.
The only time I use Polaris is when she's boosted, or if I want to take on a Juggs & Sam team in Shield, when I can run her with BRB and MThor, or if the Essential character compliments her.
If I see her in PvP I'm not "running", not from her alone, in fact I will frequently hit teams with her on them.
Does she help newer players "compete"? Abso-f'g-lutely. She is very useful in the hands of the player helping them play higher CLs for better rewards.But "dominate"? Absolutely not! I don't know anyone that plays competitively for placement (I'm talking top players, and not just T100) who relies on Polaris.
In PvP on Defense the only time I get in trouble hitting teams with her is when the AI gets a monster cascade, or my Supports don't proc and I stupidly continue the match. Nobody is using Polaris to "dominate" in PvP.
She may be used a lot because of how useful she is with BRB to preserve health kits, but she is absolutely NOT consistently dominating across nearly every aspect of the game.
4 -
@ThisisClemFandango said:
@Bustapup said:
@ThisisClemFandango said:
An increase to Peggy even though she's still not functioning properlyThanks?
Sorry this seems negative, a damage increase is of course welcome
Why isn't Peggy functioning properly?
Not my words, BCS's words
Apparently she isnt working as they planned her to
I'll see if I can find itSomewhat ironically its me that created it.
Did I dream this entire thing up? Very possible2 -
Hope we get more details on "number adjustment" and what that really means. More damage/more health isn't everyone's problem. It's also power costs.
Not sure about Polaris, in high-level play, she's not challenging. At the low end, she helps people punch up, and she has a few very efficient counters (Morbius and Gorr are my favourites)..
I think her biggest nerf is adding supports to her. Having the AI create a strike tile every turn beefs her up significantly. I would be supportive of either a lockout of powers (like Karnak), or a tile destruction (like Gwenpool) to get her up and running. Maybe a limit on 3-5 tile placements per turn - it can get a little silly if you get a wild cascade.
0 -
For what it's worth, I've found I'm rarely using Polaris recently. Multiple Man does everything so much better on offence. She's also easy to kill when she's on defence, generally a good one to choose to attack.
Low Level AI made the preservation of strike tiles that Polaris does a lot less unique.
Probably the main time I use Polaris is with Sabretooth in lightning rounds against Rocket. It's probably not the most reliable team for this but it's a habit I've had for a long time.
Looking forward to seeing what they're actually going to do for the nerf.
1
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