Marvel Puzzle Quest: Character Rebalances - Batch #1

@entrailbucket said:

@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?

I mean, MPQ has been incredibly limited in the balance updates over the last 10+ years. SF6 didn't do any balance updates for almost a year and was successful, Smash has stopped doing balance updates on multiple games that are still played competitively. Rocket League. Where you typically see consistent balance updates are games that exclusively cater to strict PVP with little to not PVE support. Not to mention, MPQ is a gacha game exponentially more than it's a competitive PVP multiplayer game.

And cool, you can snipe me but I can snag someone else. There's a leaderboard but we're not playing each other. We're playing against the computer and the clock and the coordination of others.

@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.

It’s entirely possible that your list is more powerful than the list your rejecting, and that would still be irrelevant.

High level meta may not reflect overall meta solely due to availability. The top 1% (or even 10%) will get characters fully maxed very quickly, especially if needed to keep up with the other players in the top.

The rest of the player base, won't keep up with that. 4a5 MBaku might be an absolute beast, but Polaris is in more rosters. You might use 5*Sam effectively but that means nothing to someone who barely baby champed him but has had more time to get Shang built to higher levels.

My point is, nerfs seem focused on use (characters being used more than others to a vast degree) and not solely on power.

To be clear, I'm not saying I agree or disagree with your assessment on these characters power, I'm just saying it may not matter if power isn't the only metric being considered.

I welcome any corrections if anyone has information proving my understanding of this to be incorrect.

@Blackstone said:

@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.

It’s entirely possible that your list is more powerful than the list your rejecting, and that would still be irrelevant.

High level meta may not reflect overall meta solely due to availability. The top 1% (or even 10%) will get characters fully maxed very quickly, especially if needed to keep up with the other players in the top.

The rest of the player base, won't keep up with that. 4a5 MBaku might be an absolute beast, but Polaris is in more rosters. You might use 5*Sam effectively but that means nothing to someone who barely baby champed him but has had more time to get Shang built to higher levels.

My point is, nerfs seem focused on use (characters being used more than others to a vast degree) and not solely on power.

To be clear, I'm not saying I agree or disagree with your assessment on these characters power, I'm just saying it may not matter if power isn't the only metric being considered.

I welcome any corrections if anyone has information proving my understanding of this to be incorrect.

They mostly look at usage and win rate, both offensive and defensive.

There's a very good argument that they should be looking deeper, but that would require an understanding of the high level game that they don't (and probably will never) have. This is why they always seem to nerf the last overpowered thing -- the high level players have already moved on to the next overpowered thing.

@Bustapup said:

@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.

Not like that wasn't always the case though, the crucial difference right now is that they want the whales to open their wallets, so all the most popular 4* and 5* options will presumably be getting hit over the head by the nerfbat in the coming months.

It+would+also+be+nice+if+they+could+fix+the+shoddy+state+of+the+game+prior+to+introducing+nerfs+,+even+those+that+seem+necessary.

So you guys are going to increase the difficulty while nerfing one of the best characters in the game yet still cannot figure out all of the bugs plaguing this once great game? Got it. I guess I will chalk up the last 11 years of playing to the fact that this game has become less about what the players want from their experience and more about what people who probably do not even play the game think is whats best to keep the game afloat. Wasn't even able to complete tonights 5* clear on the current event due to yet another error. My complaints will fall on deaf ears as long as people keep supporting this trash, I'm out.

@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*?

She already consider balance, her support is consider de best. U need to more worry she get nerf instead of buff since she also part of meta team.

@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.

I think in certain compositions and with certain supports he’s completely busted. Mostly with other characters that create critical tiles easily and are readily accessible (I’m looking at you original 1 star spiderman), as his critical match damage is off the charts!
I think if they reduce the critical multiplier substantially that’s probably all they need to do to make him less of a one-punch man?

The alternative is they address all these supports that provide AP at match start…

@ThisisClemFandango said:

@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

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/89543/worthy-peggy?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=worthy+peggy

Somewhat ironically its me that created it.
Did I dream this entire thing up? Very possible

Worthy Peggy is still a Mystery to me, I hoped she could be a nice partner for MThor but, but till today I have no clue what she does and what she was intended to do
Like Meeting Sandra Bullock on Hollywood Blv but it’s actually just a fat crossdresser with a moldy wig

@toecutter3095 said:
A slow rollout of 1 nerf at a time with an evaluation period is just going to put sections of the player base at a temporary disadvantage and leave them wondering where they should focus their attention next.
Polaris being done first is going to impact players at or below early 5-star level. For years she has been the best advice from the community on where to focus to build a strong team to leverage the most resources from the game so that they can progress. If this nerf makes her ineffectual for their play style, what do they do? Spend resources on another strong character that may also be on the nerf list? For those players that have moved on from Polaris as their #1 team, they now have the advantage over these players to score better and get better rewards, making it harder again for the Polaris players to recover and rebuild.
No timeline has been given for these nerfs but you'd expect an evaluation period to be 1 season (at least) and even that is a small sample size. So these nerfs are going to be rolling on for the next 6+ months?
At the very least, a list of who is being targeted should be published, along with a more detailed timeline. But they should probably reconsider the slow rollout as it really just punishes some parts of the player base while giving the advantage to others.

The slow rollout without knowing who's being looked at is almost communication malpractice as a far as player morale and interest.

Who's getting the rug pull? When?

This is not a good long term state of affairs, not in the best of times.

This is not fun for most players. The Sword of Damocles? Come on. Just tell us who's coming along or how many or something.

I do not fault any person who decides the game is no longer fun to play in. The devs are mismanaging it in so many ways. It's getting to the point where your fun is almost despite their efforts.