Best Of

I’m really not sure where to start with this post or really if anyone cares, but I just wanted to throw my thoughts out here into the MCOC void. This is coming from someone who has been playing the game on and off since release, back when the class wheel was different even. Anyway here I go.

I’m a long time Marvel fan, grew up on X-Men comics with my uncle. I loved reading them and watching the cartoons. I loved sharing that interest with my uncle and we were close. Then i started getting into the Avengers type stories with a little bit of Spider-Man on the side. The Marvel world was amazing and so cool. So why does this matter? Because when I first came across this game, it was so cool and had so much potential. I got my hands on some characters I really loved. Wolverine, Thor, Hawkeye, and Cyclops to name a few. It felt fun and enjoyable. The abilities were nothing spectacular but being able to fight other Marvel characters with Thor and smash them with a hammer and lightning felt cool. Then they started releasing even more popular characters like Dr. Strange and BW. Things were popping. Then 12.0 hit.

This begins one of my biggest gripes with the game: balance. I realize that 12.0 had to happen to preserve balance for the overall game, but a lot of those characters that people loved (both in and out of game) got essentially dusted. OG Thor, Dr. Strange, and BW were among some people’s favorite characters and they got nerfed hard. 8.5 years later and they’re still in such a poor state compared to the rest of the game. Other characters get 2-4 buffs whereas OG Thor and Strange are left in the dust and disrespected. Meanwhile we are adding our 20th Spider-Man who has just an absurd list of abilities. How is that fair? I’m sure Pavitr has a fan base, but why are iconic characters like Thor and Strange left to rot while more obscure characters get the lime light? Where’s the balance and justice?

This also starts point #2 along the lines of balance, battlegrounds. Where do I even start here? As an end game player, there’s not much that keeps me in game anymore. AQ is the worst thing ever, AW is horrible and an item sink if you want to be semi competitive, and raids’ bosses are so tedious and annoying to fight. Battlegrounds used to be one mode that felt great. You could play it virtually any time and you could get by with most rosters. That’s not the case anymore. It’s solely a drafting competition, not a skill competition. The balance, design space, power creep, whatever you want to call it has made it such a terrible mode anymore, it’s gotten to the point of not fun. So many defenders require a specific counter now and if you don’t have one, you just suffer immensely. It’s not a Korg situation where your skill might help you get through it. It’s a situation where RNG screws you so you get pummeled with knives and bleed out. Or you can’t control power and block damage so you just get L3d constantly. Or you just take insane unavoidable damage via Nova Flame or Neuroshock.

At this point, is this game even fun anymore or is it an addiction? Unfortunately for me it is an addiction. I know I’ve invested so much in this game that I don’t really want to walk away. But I wish I could just have a fun Marvel game. I desperately want one that I can enjoy, not suffer through.

tl;dr I’ve invested so much into this game that I can’t walk away but the game’s “balance” is helping me break the addiction.