fight4thedream said:But what I am trying to understand is what people who make this argument about the 4* tier expect. If a 4* character power set does nothing noticeably significant they are written off as a waste of roster space. In contrast, if a 4* character power set does something that impacts the meta, they are called broken. I think the problem lies in the conceptualization that the different tiers should operate separately from each other, specifically with each higher tier clearly dominating the preceding tiers, which I believe is bad game design.
BoyWonder1914 said: fight4thedream said:But what I am trying to understand is what people who make this argument about the 4* tier expect. If a 4* character power set does nothing noticeably significant they are written off as a waste of roster space. In contrast, if a 4* character power set does something that impacts the meta, they are called broken. I think the problem lies in the conceptualization that the different tiers should operate separately from each other, specifically with each higher tier clearly dominating the preceding tiers, which I believe is bad game design. I think this is a bit of an extreme way to look at it. There's no problem with a 4-star character being able to decently hold it's own against a 5-star character - the issue is with that 4-star character having a mechanic that literally makes it impossible for a 5-star character to win against it. A 4-star character shouldn't be able to passively build up enough AP to stun-lock a 5-star character to death just by said 5-star character sneezing. That's why it's considered "broken". If I'm a Lv 10 Mafia Boss facing a Lv 5 foot soldier, I shouldn't need to send another Lv 5 foot soldier just to have a shot at winning that fight, because said foot soldier has a power that makes him mega broken against Mafia Bosses specifically. THAT in my opinion is what is bad game design. I'm fine with Bishop smacking my 5-stars for 5K damage every time I touch him. I'm fine with that eventually causing that 5-stars death, because I didn't find a smarter way to deal with it before the damage piled up. I'm NOT fine with now not being able to touch Bishop for the rest of the match, simply for breathing in his direction. The "jump-in-front" mechanic for match damage, or any mechanic for that matter, is broken when instead of giving you a significant edge in battle, it essentially guarantees victory. I'm totally fine with a higher tier generally meaning it dominates lower tiers, with exceptions that can be made in certain circumstances. There was nothing wrong with IM40 - IceMan/Peggy/Thor punching above it's weight class because that was balanced by them being beatable by a variety of teams. There aren't too many teams that can beat a Bishop-powered Beta Ray Bill, a Worthy-charged JJ, or any variation of these teams where a hiccup by a 5-star passively gives them the AP to wreck you in 2-3 turns.