Marvel Puzzle Quest: Character Rebalances - Batch #1

13567

Comments

  • BriMan2222
    BriMan2222 Posts: 1,860 Chairperson of the Boards

    @turbomoose said:
    1 at a time is fine , but a list of upcoming nerfs would be handy , as someone said earlier, it would help us plan what to spend our resources on

    They haven't said officially, but I remember several months ago on discord they mentioned they were looking at a few meta characters to nerf. From what I recall Polaris, mthor, and shang chi were the ones specifically named.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,488 Chairperson of the Boards

    @KGB said:

    @S0kun said:

    @entrailbucket said:
    Huh, just Polaris, weird.

    That's a lot of buffs though! Very welcome news.

    The plan is to do 1 main meta character nerf at a time so we can see the impact of how these rebalances play out.

    You'll obviously see a massive move to the remaining meta characters. As each gets nerfed more and more will pile into the remaining ones.

    KGB

    This is how it should work, and how they should be doing this. If (for example) they murder Polaris, then her usage goes down to a normal range and usage of Peggy Thor skyrockets, you nerf Peggy Thor next.

    One at a time. Too many moving pieces risks killing someone who didn't deserve it, and it's really hard to anticipate where the metagame will go in advance.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,488 Chairperson of the Boards

    @turbomoose said:
    1 at a time is fine , but a list of upcoming nerfs would be handy , as someone said earlier, it would help us plan what to spend our resources on

    Seconded. They should have a "watch list" of who they're looking at at any given time. Most other games do this.

  • BriMan2222
    BriMan2222 Posts: 1,860 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 14 October 2025, 23:35

    Found it. Also may listed, though I'm not sure that's the iron or surfer variety

  • S0kun
    S0kun ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 1,052 Chairperson of the Boards

    I think our upcoming nerf list is still being considered, but I'll check with the team on who is confirmed. Suffice to say, most of the names you'll see shouldn't be any surprise to anyone.

  • SuperCarrot
    SuperCarrot Posts: 304 Mover and Shaker
    edited 14 October 2025, 23:48

    I also play Marvel Snap and am very use to frequent changes…which is fine if they are frequent buffs and nerfs. Frequent being the main thing…which encourages a deep roster (which might also encourage more spending, also very aware of the problems with that game).

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,488 Chairperson of the Boards

    @BriMan2222 said:
    Found it. Also may listed, though I'm not sure that's the iron or surfer variety

    All of these characters are mostly-offense, low-defense characters, and I'm beyond happy to see them on this list. "Overpowered on offense" is absolutely a thing.

  • Kalidor
    Kalidor Posts: 17 Just Dropped In

    I primarily play PvE and only occasionally dip into PvP when necessary. I'm extremely disappointed to hear about the Polaris nerf as it only "benefits" the PvP side of the game.
    I play at the lowest available SCL to me in PvP and I don't have the best rosta full of the ascended or champed options. Nerfing Polaris will take opportunity for a win against much better teams away from me. Yes, Polaris punches above her weight on offense, but I also know she's an easy target on defense which my negative loss scores will attest to each time I log into the game.
    As for PvE, she's essential for me to get a quick clearance otherwise it becomes a boring, tedious slog each node.

    Polaris is not the problem. If there is a problem, it's a lack of viable counters.

  • amigopdude22
    amigopdude22 Posts: 29 Just Dropped In

    @S0kun said:
    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.

    Lol so the snake eating its own tail begins.

    As with all games that focus on "balance updates", it'll take no time at all for people to find and build a new meta. Then we'll be right back here. The options are to do these more frequently, meaning players are less likely to invest in characters because there's no guarantee of power (Sidewinder effect), or people will simply quit because what's supposed to be fun/relaxing now comes with weekly or monthly homework to keep up with the fundamental changes that are made.

    Can't wait to see what new hell the next meta brings and see people miss the days pre-nerfs.

    BCS- "Don't worry players, we've released new clearance levels that come with more game-breaking bugs and wait for a monthly update to do anything about them while obviously introducing new bugs, but we're right on top of changing all the characters you've spent time and resources building. Also, our monetary offers are working just fine and on schedule because god forbid.....except for the times where we get your money but you don't get the right things you pay for!"

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,488 Chairperson of the Boards

    @amigopdude22 said:

    @S0kun said:
    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.

    Lol so the snake eating its own tail begins.

    As with all games that focus on "balance updates", it'll take no time at all for people to find and build a new meta. Then we'll be right back here. The options are to do these more frequently, meaning players are less likely to invest in characters because there's no guarantee of power (Sidewinder effect), or people will simply quit because what's supposed to be fun/relaxing now comes with weekly or monthly homework to keep up with the fundamental changes that are made.

    Can't wait to see what new hell the next meta brings and see people miss the days pre-nerfs.

    BCS- "Don't worry players, we've released new clearance levels that come with more game-breaking bugs and wait for a monthly update to do anything about them while obviously introducing new bugs, but we're right on top of changing all the characters you've spent time and resources building. Also, our monetary offers are working just fine and on schedule because god forbid.....except for the times where we get your money but you don't get the right things you pay for!"

    Just curious -- what are some successful, popular multiplayer games that don't "focus on balance updates?"

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,488 Chairperson of the Boards

    @MegaBee said:

    @entrailbucket said:

    @BriMan2222 said:
    Found it. Also may listed, though I'm not sure that's the iron or surfer variety

    All of these characters are mostly-offense, low-defense characters, and I'm beyond happy to see them on this list. "Overpowered on offense" is absolutely a thing.

    I don't know that I'd put SC in that same group. It actually takes some thought to run SC.

    He's good on offense and bad on defense -- I didn't say anything about requiring thought!

    (Although the popular Shang-Chi/m'Thor team is literally just "cast random m'Thor powers, get random cascades, win game").

  • Warbringa
    Warbringa Posts: 1,327 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 15 October 2025, 00:29

    @BriMan2222 said:
    Found it. Also may listed, though I'm not sure that's the iron or surfer variety

    I think they are looking at the wrong characters here for the most part. In higher level play those characters are not the true meta, nor the most unbalanced characters. There are far better ascended 5* teams than those characters that are way more OP. 4* Ascended MBaku, 3* Ascended Namor, 4* Ascended Juggs, and of course 5* Sam Wilson Cap are more unbalanced than the characters on this list. The new Nova may eventually deserve a spot too. Ascension has made some characters very wonky and why some are powerhouses and others get worse as you ascend them makes no sense.

  • TheXMan
    TheXMan Posts: 259 Mover and Shaker

    @ThisisClemFandango said:

    @Bustapup said:

    @ThisisClemFandango said:
    An increase to Peggy even though she's still not functioning properly

    Thanks?

    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 it

    Answer 13 on Oct 2023 Q&A:

    "Question: Worthy Peggy is some hot garbage. Why did you choose to treat a MPQ original so bad?

    Answer: I think that Worthy Peggy is not functioning as intended. As I write this, the team is working on making some corrections and improvements."

  • amigopdude22
    amigopdude22 Posts: 29 Just Dropped In

    @entrailbucket said:

    @amigopdude22 said:

    @S0kun said:
    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.

    Lol so the snake eating its own tail begins.

    As with all games that focus on "balance updates", it'll take no time at all for people to find and build a new meta. Then we'll be right back here. The options are to do these more frequently, meaning players are less likely to invest in characters because there's no guarantee of power (Sidewinder effect), or people will simply quit because what's supposed to be fun/relaxing now comes with weekly or monthly homework to keep up with the fundamental changes that are made.

    Can't wait to see what new hell the next meta brings and see people miss the days pre-nerfs.

    BCS- "Don't worry players, we've released new clearance levels that come with more game-breaking bugs and wait for a monthly update to do anything about them while obviously introducing new bugs, but we're right on top of changing all the characters you've spent time and resources building. Also, our monetary offers are working just fine and on schedule because god forbid.....except for the times where we get your money but you don't get the right things you pay for!"

    Just curious -- what are some successful, popular multiplayer games that don't "focus on balance updates?"

    MPQ is hardly the type of "multiplayer" game that requires balance updates. There is zero real-time PVP elements. With the exception of the Boss Fights, we all effectively play in an echo chamber. Placement and success is based on timing and proper shield usage, and on the top ends of the brackets, collaboration with the other top players.

  • amigopdude22
    amigopdude22 Posts: 29 Just Dropped In

    @Warbringa said:

    @BriMan2222 said:
    Found it. Also may listed, though I'm not sure that's the iron or surfer variety

    I think they are looking at the wrong characters here for the most part. In higher level play those characters are not the true meta, nor the most unbalanced characters. There are far better ascended 5* teams than those characters that are way more OP. 4* Ascended MBaku, 3* Ascended Namor, 4* Ascended Juggs, and of course 5* Sam Wilson Cap are more unbalanced than the characters on this list. The new Nova may eventually deserve a spot too. Ascension has made some characters very wonky and why some are powerhouses and others get worse as you ascend them makes no sense.

    True for the most part. Also, a lot of the perceived "OP-ness" of certain characters primarily comes from the synergies with other characters. Iron-May by herself is nothing but people expect to see her get nerfed. Meanwhile Okoye can ramp other characters up pretty quickly herself and she's fine. Similar with how Sidewinder only served to be a boost partner and was nerfed quickly.

    And yes, I'm aware that Iron-May does both Match and Power damage and to a higher percentage, it's just a general point about synergy and perception over ACTUAL OP characters.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,488 Chairperson of the Boards

    @amigopdude22 said:

    @entrailbucket said:

    @amigopdude22 said:

    @S0kun said:
    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.

    Lol so the snake eating its own tail begins.

    As with all games that focus on "balance updates", it'll take no time at all for people to find and build a new meta. Then we'll be right back here. The options are to do these more frequently, meaning players are less likely to invest in characters because there's no guarantee of power (Sidewinder effect), or people will simply quit because what's supposed to be fun/relaxing now comes with weekly or monthly homework to keep up with the fundamental changes that are made.

    Can't wait to see what new hell the next meta brings and see people miss the days pre-nerfs.

    BCS- "Don't worry players, we've released new clearance levels that come with more game-breaking bugs and wait for a monthly update to do anything about them while obviously introducing new bugs, but we're right on top of changing all the characters you've spent time and resources building. Also, our monetary offers are working just fine and on schedule because god forbid.....except for the times where we get your money but you don't get the right things you pay for!"

    Just curious -- what are some successful, popular multiplayer games that don't "focus on balance updates?"

    MPQ is hardly the type of "multiplayer" game that requires balance updates. There is zero real-time PVP elements. With the exception of the Boss Fights, we all effectively play in an echo chamber. Placement and success is based on timing and proper shield usage, and on the top ends of the brackets, collaboration with the other top players.

    We absolutely do not play in an echo chamber. Every event has a leaderboard, and we are always in competition. Point gain and loss happens in real time anyway -- I can snipe you 5 times while you're hopping, for example.

    Anyway, I'm guessing you don't have any examples of successful multiplayer games that completely ignore balance?

  • WhiteBomber
    WhiteBomber Posts: 805 Critical Contributor

    I very much look forward to every character change on that list!

    Go wild on those buffs @S0kun ! Not a single of the previous buffs made it off the bench, but now's your chance! Whatever number buffs you were considering, DOUBLE TRIPLE it (especially ability cost reduction)!

Categories