Marvel Puzzle Quest: Character Rebalances - Batch #2 (Nov 13, 2025)

@bluewolf said:
It is impossible to know the full motivations for actions taken by the devs, because it's a business and part of their business is to adjust the game to manipulate us for their benefit while making sure it feels at least somewhat fair, and fun; this requires holding back information much of the time.

But, assume:
1. there is a stable-to-shrinking playerbase (inarguably true)
2. there are certain characters who provide reliable, dependable, completely acceptable levels "will win" performance to a large chunk of players (the 90% who aren't chasing T100 in PVE, and possibly some of the ones in T100 level) - who are completely comfortable doing the same thing and barely or not-at-all spending because Old Reliable Teams provide enough of what they want to make them happy
3. The devs need some increase in current revenue
4. The characters are easier to adjust than before (apparently true since they are making adjustments in fairly large numbers whereas before they were rare and usually it was just one character a season)

All those things together point to making changes to characters now, despite every reason they shouldn't (all the bugs etc) because it's likely the options on the table are increase revenue or close it down, and they want to keep it going if they can.

Even though it seems somewhat nonsensical and even though I personally am annoyed that characters I specifically focused on, and faved to 550 or close to it, are becoming a bit worse, there's a logic to trying to push a player base who is comfortable with their favorite old sweatpants, er, characters to try to get something new (sweatpants? characters?) and build it up, which might mean some more spending. This spending won't go up absent some kind of push.

I can't make anyone like it and I can't argue in good faith that this is good timing or a good idea or that anything is being well managed really, but you can certainly see why they'd do this now.

Maybe there was a different way to try to get spending going, but maybe this is actually the easiest/most possible thing to do given their apparent labor restrictions (based on the past 5 months and persisting issues, it seems clear they are down to a minimal crew) so here we are.

The only way to get significant spending going is to introduce a new currency and new characters at the top levels that render the old stuff into being less worth. So 6*. They seem overly cautious with this and as there are lots of great alternatives already in game, players have no real pressure on them. Let's be honest, the feeder situation also means that some players can champ a character day 0 without needing to spend any resources hoarded. They started to address this by limiting knowledge of feeders to new releases so players couldn't maximise feeder results and also by making new 4's feed new 5s in some cases. But they know to keep good will they will have to vary this. We can't though ignore the fact that feeders are a problem for the Devs thanks to super hoarding, a concept that the Devs never seemed to factor in to their designs.

Nerfing would certainly help with this too but they then need to look at who really are the characters currently ruling the roost. Nobbling Jane and Shang is inconvenient (they happen to be my two highest characters by happenstance - I guess they have been in lots of vaults) but there are already better options out there for both PvE and PvP. This seems like trying to cut down a tree by taking a wild swing at it. Meanwhile, the true villains of the piece are grinning silently.

I agree with the posters here saying that it's not all that bad. Rebalances keep the game healthy and prevent it from going stale. Yes you can question the 'when' and 'why now' and also the lack of communication (like why don't they publish a full list of changes), but there's a lot of stuff to play around with, there will always be strong teams and new metas. I mean there's almost 400 characters in the game now, and they keep releasing new ones.

However imo the stability of the post-unity engine rushed rollout will kill the game if they don't address it. Seriously, the only reason I haven't quit this broken buggy mess yet is that I've been playing this game for like 10 years and at its core the game is just fun. For me, the app crashes like every 0-5 matches I play. If a new game would be that unstable I'd quit it day 1.

I used to be an occasional spender, but I won't be sending any money their way until they make the app stable enough for me to play again.

So I am in a casual alliance and several players have just stated this may be the last straw as they had built rosters for years to cover these characters and now the rug is being pulled out from under them. I think the devs underestimated the impact of nerfing all of the decent characters, especially older meta characters that many players relied upon. Pile this on the Unity fiasco and they are killing the game. What I don't understand is while these characters may be used more frequently, they are not the over powered characters in the game. There are several characters/teams way more op than any shang/mthor/polaris teams out there. If they think these long time players will chase new "better" characters vs. just quitting, I think they will be in a for a surprise. How about they fix the truly unbalanced issue in the game which is ascended characters. Ascended characters across the board are way, way less balanced than the standard 4/5 tiers. Some ascended characters are trash and others are way too good. I know if they significantly nerf a few of my favorite characters I am gone.

@Warbringa said:
So I am in a casual alliance and several players have just stated this may be the last straw as they had built rosters for years to cover these characters and now the rug is being pulled out from under them. I think the devs underestimated the impact of nerfing all of the decent characters, especially older meta characters that many players relied upon. Pile this on the Unity fiasco and they are killing the game. What I don't understand is while these characters may be used more frequently, they are not the over powered characters in the game. There are several characters/teams way more op than any shang/mthor/polaris teams out there. If they think these long time players will chase new "better" characters vs. just quitting, I think they will be in a for a surprise. How about they fix the truly unbalanced issue in the game which is ascended characters. Ascended characters across the board are way, way less balanced than the standard 4/5 tiers. Some ascended characters are trash and others are way too good. I know if they significantly nerf a few of my favorite characters I am gone.

I remember how the Devs said they were going to carefully balance the ascended characters as they went along. It has never happened. I don't want to call it an outright lie but what has happened is exactly the opposite of what was promised. Ascended characters have not been monitored, checked or balanced in any way at all.

@BewareThyself said:
So tell me, what’s the incentive to ascend Polaris? Why did I spend all that time maxing MThor? Why should I ever try to max or ascend another character? You made the game harder (which I like) but then tame any character that can give a chance of winning? And after all these years? But now I’m supposed to chase 6* characters? Is that so I can spend years building them and then have the rug pulled out from under me? As many have said, fix the game! Crashes, freezes, broken events…it goes on and on. Instead you’re focusing on rebalances? by nerfing favored characters? I’ve been loyal to this game and have certainly helped fill the coffers of the devs. But you’ve lost my trust and that of many other veteran players. The point isn’t the nerfs, it’s the fact that you continually show us that you just want our money and have forgotten that we are the customers on which you rely. How about casting an eye toward the long-time loyal players who put years into building a decent roster only to have the bar raised over their heads. Do you expect years more from us? And truly, why would I chase ANY character again? You basically undo all we’ve accomplished. Support is non-existent and always lip service. There’s no compensation for screwing us, just more “chase this and spend more.” Nothing was broke and everyone was figuring out a way to beat these meta teams, thus an equilibrium existed where a well thought out roster could do wonderful things. Now it’s chase the shiny object while we nerf the teams you’ve grown to love. And despite all these comments, again, deaf ears. Do you all even read our thoughts or gripes. You say you do, but reality tells a different tale. So, as my grandpa used to say “up your **** with Mobil gas”. I’ll chase nothing further and my money now stays in my pocket.

Because they're both still really really good. I have both of them at 550 and have played around with them both post nerf. They're both still great on their own and even better together, they just don't have as much of a chance to go crazy after just a turn or two. They're still very strong, just not as strong, but still very much worth having and filling exactly the same roles I used them for pre nerf.

I didn't have any problem at all using them to clear scl 10 pve. I don't normally use them, I'd use whoever I have boosted to 672 but I wanted to see how they'd manage. Won every single fight with minimal difficulty, I think I had to heal mthor once.

Compensation? For what? Not being able to blitz through fights quite as easily as before. We all got to use these characters that were obviously too strong when compared to every other character in the game for years and years.

@BriMan2222 said:

@Warbringa said:

@BriMan2222 said:

@BewareThyself said:
So tell me, what’s the incentive to ascend Polaris? Why did I spend all that time maxing MThor? Why should I ever try to max or ascend another character? You made the game harder (which I like) but then tame any character that can give a chance of winning? And after all these years? But now I’m supposed to chase 6* characters? Is that so I can spend years building them and then have the rug pulled out from under me? As many have said, fix the game! Crashes, freezes, broken events…it goes on and on. Instead you’re focusing on rebalances? by nerfing favored characters? I’ve been loyal to this game and have certainly helped fill the coffers of the devs. But you’ve lost my trust and that of many other veteran players. The point isn’t the nerfs, it’s the fact that you continually show us that you just want our money and have forgotten that we are the customers on which you rely. How about casting an eye toward the long-time loyal players who put years into building a decent roster only to have the bar raised over their heads. Do you expect years more from us? And truly, why would I chase ANY character again? You basically undo all we’ve accomplished. Support is non-existent and always lip service. There’s no compensation for screwing us, just more “chase this and spend more.” Nothing was broke and everyone was figuring out a way to beat these meta teams, thus an equilibrium existed where a well thought out roster could do wonderful things. Now it’s chase the shiny object while we nerf the teams you’ve grown to love. And despite all these comments, again, deaf ears. Do you all even read our thoughts or gripes. You say you do, but reality tells a different tale. So, as my grandpa used to say “up your **** with Mobil gas”. I’ll chase nothing further and my money now stays in my pocket.

Because they're both still really really good. I have both of them at 550 and have played around with them both post nerf. They're both still great on their own and even better together, they just don't have as much of a chance to go crazy after just a turn or two. They're still very strong, just not as strong, but still very much worth having and filling exactly the same roles I used them for pre nerf.

I didn't have any problem at all using them to clear scl 10 pve. I don't normally use them, I'd use whoever I have boosted to 672 but I wanted to see how they'd manage. Won every single fight with minimal difficulty, I think I had to heal mthor once.

I would think if you played the challenge node against level 700+ characters regularly using the nerfed characters you would be using much more than one health pack in many cases and wiping more often than pre-nerfs.

I did just fine. Put lucky dog support on polaris for true healing every time she matches a special tile (which is alot!) put omni city on mthor for extra damage and extra charged tile creation, and put some ap supports or supports that make specials tiles on your third. You can use beta ray bill as the third, or p5 colossus to mitigate match damage, or 4juggs, or blob for the same reason or any of the plenty of characters that provide defense while polaris stuns and mthor blows stuff up.

There is an ocean of difference between having MThor/Polaris at 550 and using them for challenge nodes and having those same characters at say 450 or 475 and trying to use them for those same battles.

For 550 players this is probably mostly a nothing burger, especially those 550 players who have a fair number of 550s so they can swap to different ones in PvP.

For everyone else (4 star players through early/mid level 5 stars) its a very large change combined with the new CL9/CL10. Never mind what its done for PvP when a lot of players highest characters by FAR are going to be Jane/Shang etc simply because they were in a ton of vaults over the last couple years. As others have noted, F2P or minimal spenders (VIP types) take years to get characters to the 550 range so these changes are huge when there is no way to respec (swap levels on character X for character Y).

KGB

@KGB said:

@BriMan2222 said:

@Warbringa said:

@BriMan2222 said:

@BewareThyself said:
So tell me, what’s the incentive to ascend Polaris? Why did I spend all that time maxing MThor? Why should I ever try to max or ascend another character? You made the game harder (which I like) but then tame any character that can give a chance of winning? And after all these years? But now I’m supposed to chase 6* characters? Is that so I can spend years building them and then have the rug pulled out from under me? As many have said, fix the game! Crashes, freezes, broken events…it goes on and on. Instead you’re focusing on rebalances? by nerfing favored characters? I’ve been loyal to this game and have certainly helped fill the coffers of the devs. But you’ve lost my trust and that of many other veteran players. The point isn’t the nerfs, it’s the fact that you continually show us that you just want our money and have forgotten that we are the customers on which you rely. How about casting an eye toward the long-time loyal players who put years into building a decent roster only to have the bar raised over their heads. Do you expect years more from us? And truly, why would I chase ANY character again? You basically undo all we’ve accomplished. Support is non-existent and always lip service. There’s no compensation for screwing us, just more “chase this and spend more.” Nothing was broke and everyone was figuring out a way to beat these meta teams, thus an equilibrium existed where a well thought out roster could do wonderful things. Now it’s chase the shiny object while we nerf the teams you’ve grown to love. And despite all these comments, again, deaf ears. Do you all even read our thoughts or gripes. You say you do, but reality tells a different tale. So, as my grandpa used to say “up your **** with Mobil gas”. I’ll chase nothing further and my money now stays in my pocket.

Because they're both still really really good. I have both of them at 550 and have played around with them both post nerf. They're both still great on their own and even better together, they just don't have as much of a chance to go crazy after just a turn or two. They're still very strong, just not as strong, but still very much worth having and filling exactly the same roles I used them for pre nerf.

I didn't have any problem at all using them to clear scl 10 pve. I don't normally use them, I'd use whoever I have boosted to 672 but I wanted to see how they'd manage. Won every single fight with minimal difficulty, I think I had to heal mthor once.

I would think if you played the challenge node against level 700+ characters regularly using the nerfed characters you would be using much more than one health pack in many cases and wiping more often than pre-nerfs.

I did just fine. Put lucky dog support on polaris for true healing every time she matches a special tile (which is alot!) put omni city on mthor for extra damage and extra charged tile creation, and put some ap supports or supports that make specials tiles on your third. You can use beta ray bill as the third, or p5 colossus to mitigate match damage, or 4juggs, or blob for the same reason or any of the plenty of characters that provide defense while polaris stuns and mthor blows stuff up.

There is an ocean of difference between having MThor/Polaris at 550 and using them for challenge nodes and having those same characters at say 450 or 475 and trying to use them for those same battles.

For 550 players this is probably mostly a nothing burger, especially those 550 players who have a fair number of 550s so they can swap to different ones in PvP.

For everyone else (4 star players through early/mid level 5 stars) its a very large change combined with the new CL9/CL10. Never mind what its done for PvP when a lot of players highest characters by FAR are going to be Jane/Shang etc simply because they were in a ton of vaults over the last couple years. As others have noted, F2P or minimal spenders (VIP types) take years to get characters to the 550 range so these changes are huge when there is no way to respec (swap levels on character X for character Y).

KGB

And I think the devs have made it pretty clear now that SCL 10 is intended as the endgame for endgame rosters. Of course 450 - 475 will struggle with SCL 10, they're not supposed to be playing that yet. Just like a 450 - 475 player in pvp shouldn't be expecting to reliably beat teams at 550 or 672.

Complaining that you can't beat lvl 700 pve opponents with a 475 team is like complaining you can't beat the lvl 270 4 star node in dpd with a team of 1 stars. You shouldn't be beating teams with a 225 level advantage reliably.