Balancing Suggestions

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I've played this game almost since day one and one of the things I've loved about it is finding fun/powerful synergies.

I think any high level player can agree however that some of these synergies now are completely out of control.

I think most of them could be fixed whilst leaving the characters still viable but not completely OP so, what changes/balancing would you like to see implemented to specific characters or synergies?

I personally think Jane needs her ability tweaks to that it "removes" special tiles next to charged tiles but only "destroys" one of them as opposed to "destroy" all special tiles it hits. This would still make her incredibly useful but curtail the massively OP synergy with Polaris and BRB. If she's only destroying one of the tiles, BRB and Polaris will only get their own trigger once instead of multiple times which can literally mean you're toast after turn one.

It should also reign in the ridiculous amount of cascades she triggers which helps accumulate loads of AP and specifically helps characters like Shang Chi

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Comments

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,324 Chairperson of the Boards

    I’m more of the opinion that it is Polaris who is the more broken of the two. Remove her ability to replicate tiles off enemy SAP. Limit how many times per turn she can proc her purple. Dunno.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 6,843 Chairperson of the Boards

    I don't hate that particular fix but I think lots of folks would find it confusing. The difference between "destroy" and "remove" is important for certain powers but often not totally obvious.

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler

    @DAZ0273 said:
    I’m more of the opinion that it is Polaris who is the more broken of the two. Remove her ability to replicate tiles off enemy SAP. Limit how many times per turn she can proc her purple. Dunno.

    Well I agree it should only proc either enemy tiles or friendly...not both and only once per turn

  • WilliamK1983
    WilliamK1983 Posts: 1,174 Chairperson of the Boards

    In regards to Jane, I would start by eliminating her blue passive at the start of each turn. Just that and see how she plays before completely changing her skill set.

    I absolutely detest Polaris so she can get nuked for all I care. For some background, she was the IT character when I first started playing and I had no real counter for her when I was starting out. Spent about 6 months battling her using 5* ghostpool cuz his blue passive Wade and Measured was my best chance at getting Polaris off the board in a pvp. The absolute worst gaming experience. I like @DAZ0273 idea about not replicate off enemy tiles.

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler

    @entrailbucket said:
    I don't hate that particular fix but I think lots of folks would find it confusing. The difference between "destroy" and "remove" is important for certain powers but often not totally obvious.

    That sounds like a problem for them :)

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler
    edited 14 July 2025, 18:56

    4* Ascended Juggs should have a maximum cap on how much damage AOE he can do in one turn OR only the first match per turn does AOE damage.

    When his AOE damage can be amplified by Iron May and strike tiles it's an insane amount of damage and even characters who are supposed to mitigate it (Francine, Quake, 5* Elektra etc) cannot keep up

  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,655 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Bustapup said:
    4* Ascended Juggs should have a maximum cap on how much damage AOE he can do in one turn OR only the first match per turn does AOE damage.

    When his AOE damage can be amplified by Iron May and strike tiles it's an insane amount of damage and even characters who are supposed to mitigate it (Francine, Quake, 5* Elektra etc) cannot keep up

    Problem is that what you described is not Juggs fault. Iron May is the problem here (see Omega Red with her too). It's also not his fault there are a lot of strike tiles out (again see Omega Red for a similar experience).

    A big part of game strategy is combing powers / characters and that's what's happening here. To say one character is the problem is simplifying it too much because without May or a lot of strikes he's just fine.

    KGB

  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,655 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Bustapup said:

    @DAZ0273 said:
    I’m more of the opinion that it is Polaris who is the more broken of the two. Remove her ability to replicate tiles off enemy SAP. Limit how many times per turn she can proc her purple. Dunno.

    Well I agree it should only proc either enemy tiles or friendly...not both and only once per turn

    Her problem is that her passive activates mid tile drop so she places her new SAPs right on tiles during cascades which leads to her passive triggering multiple times if they happen to be placed on tiles that are part of a cascade. They just need to limit her passive to only place the new SAPs after all the cascades have settled. Then she could trigger off any SAP (hers or enemies) but would only place one time at the end.

    KGB

  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,549 Chairperson of the Boards

    @KGB said:

    @Bustapup said:

    @DAZ0273 said:
    I’m more of the opinion that it is Polaris who is the more broken of the two. Remove her ability to replicate tiles off enemy SAP. Limit how many times per turn she can proc her purple. Dunno.

    Well I agree it should only proc either enemy tiles or friendly...not both and only once per turn

    Her problem is that her passive activates mid tile drop so she places her new SAPs right on tiles during cascades which leads to her passive triggering multiple times if they happen to be placed on tiles that are part of a cascade. They just need to limit her passive to only place the new SAPs after all the cascades have settled. Then she could trigger off any SAP (hers or enemies) but would only place one time at the end.

    KGB

    I've suggested this fix in the past as well - making the cascade resolve prior to fragmenting the SAPs would pretty immediately curb this problem without killing the character's flavor. Tile destroyers would still get to milk it offensively, but it would blunt the defensive potential of it pretty significantly.

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler

    I'm not suggesting it's one character what I'm saying is that several characters have mechanics that can be exploited to the nth degree and that shouldn't be the case because that's literally causing huge balancing issues.

    One blast of AOE can still be strong alone, or amped by may but a cascade of amped AOE damage and it's game over in one or two turns and that SHOULD NOT EVER happen

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler
    edited 14 July 2025, 19:55

    The reality is that the Devs either didn't test their theories enough with how characters interact or they didn't care but PVP suffers from MASSIVE balance problems which is why we see the same teams match after match after match after match. If they're going to put characters like this in the game and NOT tweak them to be balanced then there has to be more options to counter them.

    Think about how many characters create/buff/exploit strike tiles compared to how many we have that negate that power and even the ones that do aren't effective enough.

    Loads of games where PVP exist regularly adapt/adjust characters or create other modes for people to play but we are stuck with the same wildly imbalanced **** day after day

  • WilliamK1983
    WilliamK1983 Posts: 1,174 Chairperson of the Boards

    Not sure if this fit the criteria for rebalance but ascended characters overall need to be looked at. Specifically, characters who's numbers get worse after ascension, like 3* Iron May. The 3a4 version shouldn't be better than the 3a5.

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler

    @WilliamK1983 said:
    Not sure if this fit the criteria for rebalance but ascended characters overall need to be looked at. Specifically, characters who's numbers get worse after ascension, like 3* Iron May. The 3a4 version shouldn't be better than the 3a5.

    Hmmm I'm not sure tbh.....Iron May's buffs are insane. The only saving grace is that at 4* she's still easy to kill but if her buffs were the same and she had 5* HP pool it would be waaaaay OP

  • WilliamK1983
    WilliamK1983 Posts: 1,174 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Bustapup said:

    @WilliamK1983 said:
    Not sure if this fit the criteria for rebalance but ascended characters overall need to be looked at. Specifically, characters who's numbers get worse after ascension, like 3* Iron May. The 3a4 version shouldn't be better than the 3a5.

    Hmmm I'm not sure tbh.....Iron May's buffs are insane. The only saving grace is that at 4* she's still easy to kill but if her buffs were the same and she had 5* HP pool it would be waaaaay OP

    I'm speaking more as a rule or guideline that any 3a5 should be better than the 3a4. For the example I used, 3* Iron May, I agree with your point of view as well so in that case, she would need to be adjusted to more appropriate levels.

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler
    edited 15 July 2025, 07:59

    And this is exactly why SERIOUS balancing adjustments need to take place.

    My team is:

    Avalon level 406
    Britain level 456
    Kitty level 474

    The team has great synergy with protect tiles yet on turn one, Juggernaut fired his green due to the fee AP he got from support and that was it, game over. What the f*** is the point of playing PVP when this is all you're faced with at higher levels? I'm using the featured character MAXED OUT AND CHAMPIONED and yet I literally cannot get past 25 wins. Without that support, my team would have at least had a chance of buffing protect tiles to put up some resistance

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,324 Chairperson of the Boards

    Because the 1a5 could be purchased the Devs sort of dug their own hole with that one given they are 550able without secret CS stuff and regularly boosted. Of course giving Juggernaut free start up AP on top of all that does seem a bit much.

    I don’t even know what the answer is. I suggested maybe not have them boosted as often but someone pointed out that getting that advantage is part of pay to win which I guess it is.

  • kuntilanak
    kuntilanak Posts: 158 Tile Toppler

    I believe the ascension feature is the real culprit here. Some characters at lower tiers are pretty OPed, but because they are lower tier, they are very squishy in 5* realm. BUT ascension CHANGED all that. And this is where we're at now. And those pesky supports made the situation worst. Urgh...

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 110 Tile Toppler
    edited 15 July 2025, 11:36

    It's just so so frustrating when you really want a character and you finally get them, build and champion them and you just can't realistically use them because the meta or OP boosted characters will trounce them every single time

    I think they should drop the whole boosted character thing schedule completely AND supports..... Does nothing but make the game worse

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,324 Chairperson of the Boards

    Some 5's only come alive when boosted though and from a purely selfish point of view I literally just last month finished champing the 5* tier (apart from Elsa) and really want to experience each one boosted. So I would be very sad to see the boost list go and really all it would do would put everything back with whoever is jamming up the SHIELD Sim queues.

  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,592 Chairperson of the Boards

    I'm not going to diminish your frustration, but you had 0 chance against that team. as in auto skip before starting.

    From your message
    Avalon level 406
    Britain level 456
    Kitty level 474

    The enemy juggs alone is level 672. and I strongly suspect Onslaught was over 500.

    As a general rule, your avg team levels +- 50 levels would be a reasonable/viable enemy team. Of course, there are specialized "sniper teams (kang/veil)" or stun locking "gadget teams (riri/mthor). But in general, any difference over 50 levels is gonna result in a mismatch unless their some "secret" leverage vs that combo.