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

@Blackstone said:

@entrailbucket said:
When I was a teenager I worked at a fast food restaurant (that shall remain nameless). We had a customer who came in at the same time, every single day, wearing the same clothes (and he wasn't homeless or something, he obviously owned multiples of the same items), ordered exactly the same meal, and paid with exact change. He sat at the same table, and if someone was there he'd ask them to leave or just wait until they left.

I don't think he was dangerous or anything, but he was deeply weird, and I always wanted to see what'd happen if his food got taken off the menu or the recipe changed or something.

Turns out, all I had to do was come to the MPQ forums after any change!

If his order was no longer available, he likely would have quit coming to that restaurant altogether.

I say that as someone who has ordered the same thing at Waffle House for over 20 years and do the same at other restaurants. I hang my clothes in full sets when doing laundry (I even have several items—pants, shirts, sweaters— that are exactly the same though my wife has managed to get me to wear these items in different colors). If I didn’t have my wife I’d have a much more rigid schedule that I would dislike deviating from.

I won’t bore you with more details on my deeply weird behavior, but it comes from a need for control and sticking with what works. There’s comfort in removing unnecessary options.

Yes, there are also diagnosis involved, but that’s a different discussion. To me, it’s weird that more people don’t do these things. There’s only one restaurant in the world where I don’t eat the same thing when I go there.

The changes to the game are a different thing though. I think I see where you’d relate the gentleman you’re referencing here to the rage being shown in the forums, but I think you’d be surprised at how well he would have handled the change.

I can’t know for certain, of course, but my assumption would be that he would have been disappointed, stared off for a bit while debating what the change means for him, then he would have just left and you wouldn’t have seen him again. I think this because I’ve done it.

(Note: if he felt harassed while sorting through the information that his order wasn’t available anymore, before he was able to make a new plan, the odds of being met with anger would have increased.)

Meanwhile, the average forumite would have screamed at you for not running your restaurant the way they wanted you to run it then demanded a coupon book as compensation.

People are frustrated. The venting will continue. Some of it illogical. Hopefully things get back on track by the end of the year, or at least shows signs of heading in that direction.

I visited the MOMA in NYC today. The plaque at Andy Warhol’s 32 Campbell Soup Cans had a quote from him saying he ate the exact same thing for 20 years. And it made me think of your post and this discussion.

So there’s that. No other point to make really…

@Polares said:

@Blackstone said:

@Polares said:

@DAZ0273 said:

@Polares said:

@DAZ0273 said:

@Polares said:
I have to ask… why dont you just close the game and that is it? We have lost 5+ long players in our Alliance and after this more will follow. Heck, not sure I will continue playing after these nerfs.

You cant release these stupidly overpowered nodes with 700+ chars and then nerf all the tools we have to beat those nodes. I guess you only want players with 550 chars to be able to do SCL10, but these is not how we the players see it.

After Polaris nerf I looked at what I could use and I went all in on MTHor and Nova and now you nerf MThor.

I will give you some advice Devs, STOP with the nerfs, with 6* being the new thing, just stop and let players HAVE FUN with these chars while we progress to 6 land. Be more careful with 6 chars and that will be enough. You are killing the game. Seriously, with all the awful bugs and now the nerfs YOU ARE KILLING THE GAME.

PS: I have been playing this game since launch, I have seen all the nerfs, from 2 Wolvie to 3 Sentry to Gambit, but this is different, the game is right now at its lowest, and these nerfs are just making even more people quit. Give people reasons to play, not reason to quit!

I will give you some advice matey. You don't speak for everybody so please do not tell anybody to shut down a game many of us are still enjoying. You can complain about whatever you like, you can quit and you can stop spending money. You can also share that with all of us here. But don't ask to have the game shut down because YOU are unhappy. Thank you.

Hey, I am giving my opinion, and I will continue to do so and I will continue to ask whatever I like, you can obviously say you dont agree with me or that you think I am wrong, but you can not tell me what I can and can not ask.

Said that, have you really fully read my comment? Because it is pretty obvious I am not really asking the Devs to close the game, just to be far more careful on the things they are doing if they dont want the game to die. The move to Unity has been a ****-show and nerfing chars now, when so many people are quitting it is a really bad move.

Your opening line is pretty self explanatory. Maybe you could have phrased that better? You set the tone with that. You don't want the game shut down but ask why the game shouldn't be shut down. An opinion can get lost amidst a flamey sort of thing like that. I'm sure it was typed with a cool and rational head.

The point of that question was precisely calling Devs attention! I wanted shock and surprise. Because sincerely, with all they have been doing lately I have really wondered if maybe they are tired of the game and they are actively trying to make us quit.

After all the issues we had and we still have with the migration, nerfing two chars soooo fast after each other and having another one ready to be nerfed…. It really blows my mind and gives me the impression that even though they might have the best intentions, they dont know what they are doing and how low the morale is.

So… you ask devs to shut down the game, get upset and say you didn’t ask for it to be shut down, then claim you did but only for shock factor…

Further, you absolutely made statements as “we the players” as if speaking for everyone then, when you were asked to not act as though you speak for everyone, you claim you’re just stating your opinion…

To be clear, you’re obviously able to share your opinion on things and no one should tell you not to.

But you really shouldn’t state your opinion as though it is the opinion of the broader group though. You especially shouldn’t do so then claim you didn’t when someone asks you to not speak for them.

Again, you weren’t asked to not state your opinion. You were asked to not claim that your opinion represented “we the players” by players that disagree with you. And you should acknowledge and respect that.

Lastly, you really can’t be upset at anyone for asking you to not request the game be shut down (especially when you’re presenting yourself as representing “we the players”).
They can do whatever they want with their game, including creating a more difficult level of play not everyone can compete in. And you can choose to play at a level your roster allows, or quit, or anything in between.

You can also tell the devs you don’t like certain changes, but you can’t say “why don’t you just close the game” in the name of “we the players” then act surprised when players say they disagree.

Can you tell me we are those “we the players” comments you talk about? I do not think I gave anything else than my own opinion and experience.

I did not get mad at someone not wanting the game to be closed, I did not get mad at all, if anything I was just pointing out that in a forum anyone is free to give their own opinion and even if I was expressing an unpopular opinion, as long as I was not attacking or insulting anybody, I should be able to do so.

But anyway, I am going to leave it here. My comment did not go as I was expecting and we are now debating something completely different than what my original intention was, so that is it.

Page 7 of this thread, posted Nov 15 2025 at 12:18.

You started the post with asking to close the thread, then you stated opinions on the current game, then you used “we the players” in a manner that can very reasonably be interpreted as though you speak for everyone.

You had the choice to review your post, explain that’s not what you intended, then move on. I wasn’t trying to derail your talking points, just inform you why it didn’t go the way you wanted.

They are making mistakes. I hope they are making them with good intentions though, just as I think you didn’t intend to communicate you spoke for everyone.

I was trying to be helpful by saying (paraphrasing) “this is the thing distracting people from being able to better consider your opinion.”

I don’t think they’re actively trying to make people quit. I think they’re frustrated and trying to keep up with a cascade of issues that are compounding.

You, and everyone else, should absolutely express they're opinions, but also be willing to correct language, unintended misunderstandings, etc, so that those opinions are understand by the most people possible.

If I offended you, or seemed like I was trying to silence your opinion, I apologize.

Part of changing mthor seems to have been a buff. Previously, when I brought chasm against her it stopped her start of match charged tiles from being created. But after playing several sim matches, the banner with her passive pops up and creates her charged tiles despite being stunned.

Chasm is an interesting one. He is more useful as a third the higher your roster goes. At the 550 level, he can often be the difference between winning or losing. That stun at the beginning is massive when you are dealing with 550 rosters that only need a turn or two at the most to win. I can definitely see at lower levels, with more turns needed, that is usefulness is minimized.

@Scofie said:

@WhiteBomber said:
Naah, screw a reputation...

You are all acting like a bunch of babies, grow up and at least TRY to look at it from a different perspective (a balanced one). They barely even hurt Polaris and MThor, haven't even touched Shang yet, made Hawkeye debatably BETTER than Shang and people can't keep seem to accept it.

Did you all really want to play only Shang-Chi and MThor for another ten years? Did you really think they were never going to adjust more characters? Some minor tweaks to characters who aren't even the top of the meta right now and we are like "yeah, that's it, that's the reason I stop playing after years of investment, but I better blast my tantrum all over the forum first, that'll teach em"?

I can understand the the frustration if those 3 characters are ALL you've invested in for years because they've waited years to fix the problem, but holy hell, see the writing on the wall... or in the forums... ADAPT. Or at least be more adult and strategic with your complaints.

@WhiteBomber - You should have had another think before posting, in my opinion (and others that have flagged the post, obviously)....

There's a certain irony in "see it from a different perspective" and then dismissing others' opinions as "acting like babies". I've no issue with the points you raise here, and indeed, agree with most of them, just not how you have characterized them. But I can also see the point of those who spent real money to build up characters that they enjoy playing with too have the news that they'll no longer be relevant (and again I don't think that's true either - these nerfs seem reasonable). To them perhaps it's like buying a book written in invisible ink and they didn't tell you.

And let's not forget that in isolation this might not be such a big deal. But with bug after bug, error after error, it's not unreasonable for some people to just not care anymore. They might not want or have time to experiment with new characters. They might not have time to play the game at the SCL they want anymore. There's a whole load of things that these decisions impact in real life and it's not a good look to trivialize that.

On a personal note, I don't disagree with the nerfs but will wait to see what happens with Shang Chi and Grocket. I loved SC because he was fun to play with and achieved his aims quickly. Far more fun than winning without matching a 3 that I'm doing currently to save time. That last event that Frankie was boosted in, I honestly made 1 match in the entire PvE round of 50 node hits it whatever it was. Quick, successful, not fun. I wish I'd played for placement.

Regardless of that, it hopefully goes without saying that I enjoy reading your posts and enjoy your take on the game and I'm sure regular posters on the forum will agree with that. But you got the tone of this one wrong I'm afraid.

@Scofie I have to start with, you are probably my favorite person on these forums, and I can definitely appreciate a good checking. However, enough days have passed now, I don't visit the forums over the weekend, and I'm still not convinced that even my tone was wrong.

Everything here is of course a matter of perspective, and I fully understand that I myself have a largely different perspective as well as play experience than likely the majority here. This due to the things that I enjoy about this game clearly often feel removed from the norm that I read and experience (I enjoy spending hours strategizing, leveling seemingly useless characters etc.).

In fact, I FEEL that I almost fully grasp the consequences of their nerfs. My wife only started playing this game because she watched me play a match with Polaris and BRB a few years ago. She quickly started playing and for years, built and played only Polaris, BRB, and MThor (not like, mostly, she ONLY plays those characters). I am also the highest leveled player in our alliance (by a lot), so the impact of those characters on smaller rosters is not lost on me. Oh boy do I hear about it... both in my alliance and especially here.

My personal reasoning for the tone

I am generally someone who is always looking for the positive, or at least trying to share positivity or getting people look look at a situation from a different light (perspective if you will). This is both in life, and here in the forums. I spend actual hours creating content trying help people better understand mechanics and look at less considered options as viable, if not good. I do this because I understand my investment in this game is not reasonable for the average player (or even vets), so in no way would it make sense for them to have the knowledge that I have about specific characters or interactions. Therefore, I try to help and I enjoy doing so.

During my time here people may have noticed that I also try to share some differing perspectives in regards to others getting emotional about a multitude of topics here (balance however being the most recent and relevant). Within the past month or so I have debated actual logic with reasons why balance is important, especially for a game that largely depends on creating new characters that need to compete.

• Recent example topics: How Shang Chi has a chokehold on 2 entire colors and playstyle making 90 + percent of the cast pointless. How game development actually works, and the people fixing the crashes and performance almost surely are NOT the people making new characters (I have been in game dev for 17 years and largely in embedded QA leadership, so I do at least understand general development, but I can accept that I could be wrong / who knows how they do it on their team).

So here I am, happily coasting along, trying to share differing thoughts or ways to look at the game, and BAM! Something happens that is actually good for the game (balance), and this isn't just like a me thing, this is game dev 101. Things like: not making crazy gameplay dependencies, not building in repetitive routine and releasing content that is clearly useless because your other content can't be topped.

We're not even talking a lot of balance here either... we're talking minimal changes that didn't even impact these nerfed characters use cases. Mechanical facts: MThor is still the queen of disruptive charged tile gameplay, Polaris still hits like truck that stuns you and makes 999 SAPs instead of 1000. Their placement in the meta, has not changed. They did however slightly add to meta by making 2 additional 1-2 stars top tier, but no one is complaining about that, and many agree that changing the meta can be refreshing.

What a great day! Right?? Some new characters are slightly more playable and 2 very very very very very clearly overpowered characters are slightly less OP.

Enter people I consider acting like very young humans of a certain descriptor (these quotes have only been slightly tweaked to protect the names of the "innocent"):

• "This is the worst thing you could do for the game. You have no idea know what you're doing! But I sure do!"
• "I can't believe you barely changed this thing that I feel entitled to regardless of how bad it is for the global good!"
• "Change it back! OR ELSE!"

All comments above (or similar to them) come from a negative emotional place, and or one that is lacking perspective. I get venting, I really do, I do it myself when I see things I really don't agree with (similar to my initial post), but the level of misunderstanding and entitled-ness is just too much for me personally.

So, after what I felt was a fair amount of time trying to share differing thoughts and perspectives, it has become evident to me that, none of that matters to these people and all they care about is getting their way, regardless of how it impacts the entire game.

This is a tantrum, and I PERSONALLY (this is where I will differ from plenty others) don't feed in to them, rather, I called it out for what it was. This is basically parenting at this point, and is heavily opinionated. You are completely allowed to handle this / them however you see fit, but my hope was that others would recognize what was happening.

Threads like this have already put a pause on buffing a lot of statistically useless characters. I get that not everyone cares about this, but there are people with similar interests to me that care about that balance, and in return, will similarly get bored / stop spending money just as the ones on the other side are threatening.

So, this is a lose lose for the devs (something for everyone to keep in mind).

Now, here is what I am NOT saying:

• The game isn't in an atrocious state for a great many people:
  Oh, it IS... again, from someone who lead the department that should be responsible for a lot of this. This IS one of the largest fumbles I've experienced in games. This however is very much removed from balancing gameplay. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING, so lets stop treating them like they are.

• The devs approach to this was good:
  It very much was not good and should have been more thoroughly communicated, especially to such a sensitive community, IF they care about that type of thing. This is all opinions as I personally don't believe the devs owe us anything. It is their project and they can run it how they see fit, they just need to know that their actions also carry consequences.

• You are wrong to be upset if you invested in those characters:
  You are completely validated in being upset because they let the problem go on for as long as they did, leading to understandable confusion.

My intent is not to insult and I do apologize for anyone that feels insulted. I treated this situation exactly as I would my own children or the people on my team.

Everyone here should know that their words carry weight, even if only in that negativity breeds more negativity. Your negative gossip about the urine in the pool all adds up. Eventually, all we see is yellow and no one wants to go in (whether the gossip was true or not!). As an adult (or aspiring adult) stop and consider the devs and other (differing) players perspectives, then maybe post your thoughts in a way that is not a tantrum.

I sincerely hope everyone continues to play (regardless of how much I disagree with you) and that the devs continue to improve in the ways that people don't agree with. Regardless of the too much money that I've spent on this game over the years, it is easily one of my favorites to play and I would love to see it carry on for at least 20 more years, because I love the PUZZLE in PQ.

I love you @Scofie and I still hope we end up on the same alliance some day. Additional apologies for making your job more difficult