Ideas to inject some fun into the 5* tier
theomen
Posts: 99 Match Maker
Us MPQ players are in a bit of an odd situation; in a game that can't be completed, 5* characters are (or should be) the endgame for most players, however many players actively avoid moving to the 5* tier.
This is often because players don't have the meta team and want to avoid their scores dropping due to tougher matches, or simply because they enjoy the greater variety of the 4* tier.
This makes the 5* tier sound less fun than the 4*, when it should be the most exciting, most fun tier to play!
I started this thread to generate ideas to make the 5* tier more diverse and more exciting to play, here are mine:
Older 5*s:
Older 5*s:
Surfer, Phoenix, Goblin, Black Bolt, BSSM, Strange, Widow, OML, Cap, IM46
Pretty simple, just up the stats and health on these to make them more competitive. OML could even be restored to his former glory.
Seriously under powered 5*s:
Banner, Wasp
Cool concepts but near complete reworks needed to make them competitive (and therefore more enjoyable). Wasp should be quicker (as is her character) and 'Call the Swarm' should be like death by thousand cuts. As for Banner, he should unleash serious carnage once transformed to Hulk, so much that's it's genuinely scary for the other team.
Slight tweaks:
Captain Marvel, Loki, IWCAP, Doom
Captain Marvel and Loki need the numbers dropped on their repeaters and CM could do with fortification.
IWCAP and Doom could do with ability cost drops for 'On Your Feet Soldier' and 'Brave New World'.
Power Down:
Thor and Kitty
There will always have to be two or three 'best' characters, but if the goal is to make the tier more balanced and fun, I think these two could be powered down a touch. Thor is pretty simple, make his passive kick in if he is below 50% health AND takes damage (sorta like Rhulk). Kitty needs slowing down with Grocket so make the number of special tiles needed for her buff to activate higher.
Don't touch with a ten foot pole:
Gambit.
Gambit's AP generation made him incredibly dominate (similar to, but much worse than Thor), however now he seems under powered. He has been discussed ad infinitum and I think he's probably best left until the rest of the tier is more balanced.
Gambit's AP generation made him incredibly dominate (similar to, but much worse than Thor), however now he seems under powered. He has been discussed ad infinitum and I think he's probably best left until the rest of the tier is more balanced.
Those are all my ideas. I know there are other characters I haven't touched on, but hopefully someone else will have a bright idea for them.
Enjoy!
'These characters may be unbalanced, dangerous even, but I believe with the right push, they can be exactly what we need.' - Nick Fury
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Comments
Since Repeater tiles seem to be pushed (for better or worse), why not make Grocket's ability to make one strike tile at the start of the match, and then have a repeater tile (fortified at higher levels, if you'd like) create a new strike tile every X turns.
If the goal is encouraging more players into 5* play then unfortunately as neat as these ideas are I don’t think they are going to help. If the goal is to make existing 5* players have more fun then fair enough, go nuts.
One of the problems with buffing old 5* is that it will not shake up things all that much in terms of what players can dominate, it will just increase the gap between the “haves” and “have nots” (unless you also make some way to obtain those 5* characters more prevalent). If I’m thinking of moving to the 5* tier then I would find it even less appealing if the meta is now six 5* characters that are out of reach via dilution vs just 2 or 3. That isn’t to say that you can’t buff or re-balance 5* characters, just that the only way you could do it in any sort of effective manner to encourage migration from 4* players would be by using data to find out the Non Meta 5* with the widest player distribution. Then the most players get to benefit. Otherwise, 5* players are just "Hey thanks for the buff" as they return to dominating all areas of the game.
Of course 5* players who have those characters will no doubt have a wildly differing opinion and probably be pro-buff but then that is another matter altogether.
It is also time to have featured 5s EVERYWHERE, so there is an actual incentive to use those old 5s for something.
I wish I had the smallest bit of confidence that the devs will take on buffing characters in any significant fashion.
Meanwhile they are probably hard at work making some new costumes to sell you.
I agree that it would be nice to make "old 5's" more valuable beyond "will be featured as Essential once a year or two." I don't really have any suggestions beyond doing what the new Captain Marvel event did, and making nodes that have those characters featured. You get a loaner, but you benefit from having your own (that should theoretically be better than the loaner).
Another idea I've had that would help the 5* tier a little (but is targeted at the 4* tier for 5* players) is to bring back Heroics, allow a limited number of 5's, and then boost all the 1-4 star characters up a tier. So basically, you only get a limited selection of characters (like old heroics), but you play them at a "Heroic" level, so your 4's will be elevated to be equal to your 5's. So you could theme groupings, and run teams like Phoenix with Cyclops or Cable with XFDP or Bolt with Medusa, and the tier difference wouldn't matter because the 4's would be boosted. It doesn't make 5's irrelevant like the old Heroics, and it means each new 5* champ is another Heroic tool (just like any other champ would have been in the old Heroics). AND it increases variety in event rotation. And it gives some relevance to your roster once you reach the 5* tier, as you'll almost certainly have more 4's to pick from. Just tweak the difficulty so the boosts don't steamroll the event (but also so it isn't a slog to be stuck with a "bad" team due to a growing roster, shoot for somewhere in the middle).
(in a perfect world that might be an option, limited roster to artificially increase difficulty, but in turn you get better rewards, but modifying and bringing back the Heroic events is the next best thing I can think of, personally)
You could save Ghost Rider by having Hell Ride work with Wakanda Forever too - it does triple damage per tile destroyed, i feel like that's a clear distinction from similar powers that just destroy tiles for base damage lol.
A character like that could play down with P4nther, Frost, Nebula, Reed, probably some others...that's the perfect "useful at 1 cover" power we're missing for loads of interesting-but-slow characters that currently exist. It doesn't save Banner or Wa5p though.
Wa5p needs a friend, or (gasp), a repeater that makes swarm tiles the way Carnage makes attack tiles every turn.
Banner is so close in my opinion. He needs to make more green, or make green regardless of what's on the board, or make the same number of green tiles but have them be charged so they're worth triple AP. Or have him make green the way Bishop makes purple. Or every time anyone on your team takes damage, he generates a green. something. Basically make his transformation easier. Then make it so the AP he collects when transformed is gathered.
On the flipside, with just 3-4 Strike tiles, this team won't be doing nasty amounts of damage right out of the gate like it's currently capable of doing.
Given D3's previous history though (OML, Gambit, etc.) I won't be surprised to see a nerfing in Kitty's future. They want us to keep spending and chasing the Latest 5*s, they don't want us cheaping out and going after the Classics.
As you say, given history I don't see nudge changes like this coming, but fear the nerf bat instead.