Hulkbuster total timeline and next fan vote champion buff

So we're finally getting to the end of the long LONG road that is the Hulkbuster buff and I'm hoping someone from the Dev team can answer some questions:

1. With the process for the Hulkbuster buff estimated to take ~9 months from time of the fan vote (early October 2019) to the planned release date (early July 2020), was this the planned timeline to re-work this champ (~9 months)?

2. Can we expect every upcoming champion buff/re-work to take the same ~ 9 month timeline from fan vote to release?

3. During the BETA we see there were no animation/design changes done to the character, so if that is an aspect in upcoming champion buffs/re-works, how much time could that realistically add to the process?

4. When can we expect to vote on the next champion buff? Since it's apparently going to be 1 champ re-work/year can we get the process started on voting on another champ ASAP?

Thanks, and I'm hoping your upcoming announcements on the revised roadmap have some good information on how you'll be better addressing champion buffs and re-works sine it's an aspect of the game that all summoners are very excited about, but don't want to be left waiting so long for turnaround times.

Comments

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Cassy

I want to know who will be the alongside buffed champ.
Hope for iron patriot... I duped Him recently. Lol

Mirage_Turtle

The pace did feel SUPER slow for Hulkbuster. I do hope they could pick up the pace for future reworks.

I think the issue is they're not on a routine. They can crank out 2 brand new champs each month because they've got that on a routine. If they could devote a few extra resources, I don't think 1 rework every 2 months is unreasonable.

As soon as a champ A is selected, spend a full month developing their abilities and doing the programming.

The following month, run the beta for champ A. At the same time, pick the next champ and start developing champ B.

During the following update, let the re-work go live for champ A. Send Champ B into beta. Select champ C for the next revamp.

Mirage_Turtle

Truthfully, is the beta really necessary? They already release at least 2 champs a month into the game that don't run public betas. Gamora didn't have a beta. Can't we just skip this step?

Chovner

The pace did feel SUPER slow for Hulkbuster. I do hope they could pick up the pace for future reworks.

I think the issue is they're not on a routine. They can crank out 2 brand new champs each month because they've got that on a routine. If they could devote a few extra resources, I don't think 1 rework every 2 months is unreasonable.

As soon as a champ A is selected, spend a full month developing their abilities and doing the programming.

The following month, run the beta for champ A. At the same time, pick the next champ and start developing champ B.

During the following update, let the re-work go live for champ A. Send Champ B into beta. Select champ C for the next revamp.

Without knowing how their process' work I would imagine doing a kit re-work on 1 old champ per quarter would be feasible. Again, not animation or synergy changes, but just basic Kit. For example the changes to Gamora weren't monumental, but took her from useless to a great damage dealer, you don't really have people complaining about her one way or another and the changes didn't require a BETA process to test and implement.

I just hope they make champion buffs a more regular thing going forward because it's an easy change aspect of the game you know ALL summoners can positively get on board with, so give the game some good PR and keep us excited for some good changes instead of the same routine of the same EQ rewards, same AQ/AW rotation, same Incursions rewards (even though it's only new and I like Incursions).

My pipe dream is they randomly come out with a list of 15 old champs they've made kit improvements to and just roll it out to everyone with the message that these changes are here so we can get some more use out of these forgotten champs, but additional animation, synergy larger kit improvements aren't out of the question in the future. Then let everyone test them all out and you'd get the normal Forum feedback to work off of organically, instead of a rigid single champ BETA/re-work process. They can help out the whole class a little, instead of just 1 slow student in a year.

Shadowstrike

Truthfully, is the beta really necessary? They already release at least 2 champs a month into the game that don't run public betas. Gamora didn't have a beta. Can't we just skip this step?

Everyone is quick to use Gamora as the example of a "Simple Buff" but Kabam went on record that it took as long as the other buffs but they just never said anything about what they were doing in case she wasn't ready in time. So it was literally an out of left field surprise.

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Mirage_Turtle

Truthfully, is the beta really necessary? They already release at least 2 champs a month into the game that don't run public betas. Gamora didn't have a beta. Can't we just skip this step?
Everyone is quick to use Gamora as the example of a "Simple Buff" but Kabam went on record that it took as long as the other buffs but they just never said anything about what they were doing in case she wasn't ready in time. So it was literally an out of left field surprise.

I'm all for that idea. I would be THRILLED to find out that they've been secretly working on buffs for Magneto, Groot, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon, and any number of other outdated champs that they plan on releasing soon.

My issue isn't so much that I want to know about them working on it. My issue is that it's taking far too long to these reworks to go live. The point of the post you quoted is just to show that a beta test certainly isn't necessary and it may be advantageous to drop them completely in the interest of timely releases. I could be satisfied with 4 updates a year. 1 update in 9 months? That's pretty slow.

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KamrandB

I hope Magneto gets a buff. There are two versions of the character and both suck, plus almost everyone has him as a 5/6 star. A buff to IP would be okay but I would rather they buff a champ of a different class after HB.

UlisesHerrera

I think the next champion will be Daredevil.

Kalantak

There should be no hetal,polls, and number of “announcements” ,they should just rework it n release it and announce we will need if necessary and be done with it! With this timeline I doubt we can ever reach the rework of other 80%+ useless champs by 2040!! And it’d b like reworking a champion released i. 2015 in 2040!! 😂😂 nice Such a great game we play

Unassignedtester

I assume that Kabam will eventually pick up speed and drop buffs more frequently. Kabam has started actually responding to the communities complaints, and one of the most frequented complaints that I have seen, is the lack of balance in Champions.

Timone147

I think instead of full blown reworks they should focus on some champs that need minor tweak first to make them viable. One full blown rework a year is ok if you are fixing the ones that have a decent kit but the values in that kit are wrong.

Notsavage19

Truthfully, is the beta really necessary? They already release at least 2 champs a month into the game that don't run public betas. Gamora didn't have a beta. Can't we just skip this step?
Everyone is quick to use Gamora as the example of a "Simple Buff" but Kabam went on record that it took as long as the other buffs but they just never said anything about what they were doing in case she wasn't ready in time. So it was literally an out of left field surprise.
I'm all for that idea. I would be THRILLED to find out that they've been secretly working on buffs for Magneto, Groot, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon, and any number of other outdated champs that they plan on releasing soon.

My issue isn't so much that I want to know about them working on it. My issue is that it's taking far too long to these reworks to go live. The point of the post you quoted is just to show that a beta test certainly isn't necessary and it may be advantageous to drop them completely in the interest of timely releases. I could be satisfied with 4 updates a year. 1 update in 9 months? That's pretty slow.

Well since they didn't announce Gamora, the player base didn't have any expectations of what her buff was going to be like.

Since Colossus/OML and now Hulkbuster's buffs were announced and also polled, it would make sense for Kabam to do betas for the player base to play around with their buffed versions. If there was no beta, then Kabam might not know for certain if their proposed buff lived up to the standards of the player base.

As for the new champs, the reason they don't run public betas is that they do internal testing, as with silent buffs and reworks. This is also paired with the fact that Kabam doesn't take any outside suggestion into their new characters, meaning Kabam don't know how the player base feels about that certain champ, since it's never been in the game before, and they don't announce new characters until they're almost ready for release.

Mirage_Turtle

Truthfully, is the beta really necessary? They already release at least 2 champs a month into the game that don't run public betas. Gamora didn't have a beta. Can't we just skip this step?
Everyone is quick to use Gamora as the example of a "Simple Buff" but Kabam went on record that it took as long as the other buffs but they just never said anything about what they were doing in case she wasn't ready in time. So it was literally an out of left field surprise.
I'm all for that idea. I would be THRILLED to find out that they've been secretly working on buffs for Magneto, Groot, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon, and any number of other outdated champs that they plan on releasing soon.

My issue isn't so much that I want to know about them working on it. My issue is that it's taking far too long to these reworks to go live. The point of the post you quoted is just to show that a beta test certainly isn't necessary and it may be advantageous to drop them completely in the interest of timely releases. I could be satisfied with 4 updates a year. 1 update in 9 months? That's pretty slow.
Well since they didn't announce Gamora, the player base didn't have any expectations of what her buff was going to be like.

Since Colossus/OML and now Hulkbuster's buffs were announced and also polled, it would make sense for Kabam to do betas for the player base to play around with their buffed versions. If there was no beta, then Kabam might not know for certain if their proposed buff lived up to the standards of the player base.

As for the new champs, the reason they don't run public betas is that they do internal testing, as with silent buffs and reworks. This is also paired with the fact that Kabam doesn't take any outside suggestion into their new characters, meaning Kabam don't know how the player base feels about that certain champ, since it's never been in the game before, and they don't announce new characters until they're almost ready for release.

I respectfully disagree. Just because a champ is polled and chosen by the community doesn't mean they absolutely HAVE to have a beta. They make champs at a rate of twice per month. By this point, they should have a pretty solid understanding of how the playerbase is going to react to any given champ.

To their credit, they've done a really nice job with all the champion re-works so far. Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Spider-Gwen, Venom, and Carnage are all pretty great champs. I don't think the beta gave Kabam any information that they couldn't have received in-house had they done reasonable testing. To my knowledge, the betas have not resulted in any major adjustments to a champ that was being reworked. Is Hulkbuster getting a final re-tuning? Who knows?...but I doubt it. All the beta seemed to do was push back his live release another 2 months.

Beta's for new story modes? Sure. Keep those going just to make sure that player goals and developer goals are in line with one another. For now, it seems that Betas only serve to slow down the process of reworking old champs who are otherwise useless. If removing beta tests can get speed up these updates, that's 100% what they should do.

BigPoppaCBONE

Heres an idea-just take all the synergies that came with the new champs in the last 6 months and drop them on all the champs no one uses. It probably wouldn't make them as good as most champions, but It would probably help a lot.

I would've expected an idea so good, fast, and cheap to have upwards of 200 disagrees already.

Notsavage19

Truthfully, is the beta really necessary? They already release at least 2 champs a month into the game that don't run public betas. Gamora didn't have a beta. Can't we just skip this step?
Everyone is quick to use Gamora as the example of a "Simple Buff" but Kabam went on record that it took as long as the other buffs but they just never said anything about what they were doing in case she wasn't ready in time. So it was literally an out of left field surprise.
I'm all for that idea. I would be THRILLED to find out that they've been secretly working on buffs for Magneto, Groot, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon, and any number of other outdated champs that they plan on releasing soon.

My issue isn't so much that I want to know about them working on it. My issue is that it's taking far too long to these reworks to go live. The point of the post you quoted is just to show that a beta test certainly isn't necessary and it may be advantageous to drop them completely in the interest of timely releases. I could be satisfied with 4 updates a year. 1 update in 9 months? That's pretty slow.
Well since they didn't announce Gamora, the player base didn't have any expectations of what her buff was going to be like.

Since Colossus/OML and now Hulkbuster's buffs were announced and also polled, it would make sense for Kabam to do betas for the player base to play around with their buffed versions. If there was no beta, then Kabam might not know for certain if their proposed buff lived up to the standards of the player base.

As for the new champs, the reason they don't run public betas is that they do internal testing, as with silent buffs and reworks. This is also paired with the fact that Kabam doesn't take any outside suggestion into their new characters, meaning Kabam don't know how the player base feels about that certain champ, since it's never been in the game before, and they don't announce new characters until they're almost ready for release.
I respectfully disagree. Just because a champ is polled and chosen by the community doesn't mean they absolutely HAVE to have a beta. They make champs at a rate of twice per month. By this point, they should have a pretty solid understanding of how the playerbase is going to react to any given champ.

To their credit, they've done a really nice job with all the champion re-works so far. Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Spider-Gwen, Venom, and Carnage are all pretty great champs. I don't think the beta gave Kabam any information that they couldn't have received in-house had they done reasonable testing. To my knowledge, the betas have not resulted in any major adjustments to a champ that was being reworked. Is Hulkbuster getting a final re-tuning? Who knows?...but I doubt it. All the beta seemed to do was push back his live release another 2 months.

Beta's for new story modes? Sure. Keep those going just to make sure that player goals and developer goals are in line with one another. For now, it seems that Betas only serve to slow down the process of reworking old champs who are otherwise useless. If removing beta tests can get speed up these updates, that's 100% what they should do.

I think what I'm trying to say is that because it's announced to the player base, it's a way of reaffirming that what they've done to the champions is good in the eyes of the player.

I don't think many of us would want to pick a champ to buff, only to have Kabam rework it and give it back to us in a final state without consulting us first. The beta is also a way to gather a second opinion. By allowing the player base to play around with the champ, we can highlight any highs/lows of the champ that Kabam might not have foreseen.

Horror_punk

Old Champs doesn’t fetch money.
So no motivation to buff then

Notsavage19

Truthfully, is the beta really necessary? They already release at least 2 champs a month into the game that don't run public betas. Gamora didn't have a beta. Can't we just skip this step?
Everyone is quick to use Gamora as the example of a "Simple Buff" but Kabam went on record that it took as long as the other buffs but they just never said anything about what they were doing in case she wasn't ready in time. So it was literally an out of left field surprise.
I'm all for that idea. I would be THRILLED to find out that they've been secretly working on buffs for Magneto, Groot, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon, and any number of other outdated champs that they plan on releasing soon.

My issue isn't so much that I want to know about them working on it. My issue is that it's taking far too long to these reworks to go live. The point of the post you quoted is just to show that a beta test certainly isn't necessary and it may be advantageous to drop them completely in the interest of timely releases. I could be satisfied with 4 updates a year. 1 update in 9 months? That's pretty slow.
Well since they didn't announce Gamora, the player base didn't have any expectations of what her buff was going to be like.

Since Colossus/OML and now Hulkbuster's buffs were announced and also polled, it would make sense for Kabam to do betas for the player base to play around with their buffed versions. If there was no beta, then Kabam might not know for certain if their proposed buff lived up to the standards of the player base.

As for the new champs, the reason they don't run public betas is that they do internal testing, as with silent buffs and reworks. This is also paired with the fact that Kabam doesn't take any outside suggestion into their new characters, meaning Kabam don't know how the player base feels about that certain champ, since it's never been in the game before, and they don't announce new characters until they're almost ready for release.
I respectfully disagree. Just because a champ is polled and chosen by the community doesn't mean they absolutely HAVE to have a beta. They make champs at a rate of twice per month. By this point, they should have a pretty solid understanding of how the playerbase is going to react to any given champ.

To their credit, they've done a really nice job with all the champion re-works so far. Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Spider-Gwen, Venom, and Carnage are all pretty great champs. I don't think the beta gave Kabam any information that they couldn't have received in-house had they done reasonable testing. To my knowledge, the betas have not resulted in any major adjustments to a champ that was being reworked. Is Hulkbuster getting a final re-tuning? Who knows?...but I doubt it. All the beta seemed to do was push back his live release another 2 months.

Beta's for new story modes? Sure. Keep those going just to make sure that player goals and developer goals are in line with one another. For now, it seems that Betas only serve to slow down the process of reworking old champs who are otherwise useless. If removing beta tests can get speed up these updates, that's 100% what they should do.

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T1M3_M4ST3R

I think I may have somehow accidentally found out the next few champions Kabam is planning to buff. If you go into the player searchbox, and look up Kabam, three almost identical accounts without names appear. The only differences between these accounts are the total hero rating and the prestige.

The top champion is a 5 star hulkbuster, maybe showing that’s who they are currently buffing. The next three champs are Spider-Gwen, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), and Groot. I believe these may be accounts in which kabam is merely testing out the buffs for these champs.

Also, all of the champs are around 6,300 power index at r4 l55, implicating that no masteries are in use. Another thing I wondered was why these accounts came up when you searched “Kabam.”

SpideyFunko

but why does Spider-Gwen need a buff

Digbiwolvrine

Cyclops blue should be buffed.

cx23433

I think I may have somehow accidentally found out the next few champions Kabam is planning to buff. If you go into the player searchbox, and look up Kabam, three almost identical accounts without names appear. The only differences between these accounts are the total hero rating and the prestige.

The top champion is a 5 star hulkbuster, maybe showing that’s who they are currently buffing. The next three champs are Spider-Gwen, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), and Groot. I believe these may be accounts in which kabam is merely testing out the buffs for these champs.

Also, all of the champs are around 6,300 power index at r4 l55, implicating that no masteries are in use. Another thing I wondered was why these accounts came up when you searched “Kabam.”

Those are old accounts from 2 years ago