Dev Diary: Champions of the Contest

Check out the latest Champions of the Contest, our latest Dev Diary which explores our philosophy of Champion Design, how that translates into our vision for the future, our new rebalance cadence, which Magento is getting buffed, and information on a couple new crystals coming to the Contest!

Read all about it on our Blog!

Then don't forget to read our final Dev Diary of the series, which will be coming soon! We're going to talk about the future of the Contest, and updates to Incursions, Arenas, and so much more!

Comments

Hammerbro_64

Is no one going to talk about the Easter Egg? I say Apocalypse.

It’s professor X

Imthatdamnbad82

Im actually excited for this

GroundedWisdom

Is no one going to talk about the Easter Egg? I say Apocalypse.
It’s professor X

I'd like to see both TBH.

Aomine_Daiki10

Kabaam you guys killed it here nice work and whoever thought of the duel crystal choice with it rotating just for dungeon days is incredibly smart great job and can't wait for the magneto buff.

Mauled

I would have preferred nexus than class crystals. I need Aegon but I’m overload with skill and mutant champions and I miss cosmics.

However, it’s an improvement and being same price is cool.

For that one champ on its own your misses may not be valuable for you but you’re looking at a 1/50 vs a 3/170 which is still far better odds than before.

What this allows you to do is target specific elements of your roster in a way we could never do before. I for one will be saving for science, chasing both quake and wasp.

BigPoppaCBONE

Is no one going to talk about the Easter Egg? I say Apocalypse.
It’s professor X

As long as they're the Dark Helmet versions, I would be hype for Professor X or Maker. Hopefully both will come, but they'll have to change Maker's look.

Timone147

Looking very promising

ESF

So, now that I have thought about it further, I do have a few comments — nothing negative, just some thoughts:

1. I am truly hopeful that as we move forward, the concept of Defender and Attacker is removed from design considerations. Some of the worst characters to play were designed to be AW defenders, in my opinion. Not only do some of us not even play AW, it’s just one game mode in a game that has numerous other modes that require lanes to be cleared

2. If there is going to be design specific for AW defense, I honestly feel those characters should be put into a specific AW Defense Crystal in Arena and the Store and if people want to grind for them or buy them/use shards on them, great. But players shouldn’t get stuck with a poor-performing character on offense for all other modes of gameplay, ESPECIALLY if they’re not even playing AW

3. DPS and Utility are all subjective, and I don’t pretend to be a design expert. But my personal opinion is that while it can always be a pleasant surprise when, say, Medusa hits really hard, nothing is more frustrating than when a character expected to be good doesn’t perform well. I am hopeful that as this Rework Team assesses characters, some attention is given to characters who might be OK via performance data but don’t feel “right” to play — for example, take OG Hulk. I have little doubt that OG Hulk wins almost all of his fights. But the kit is just not fun to play, and my hope is that some time is taken to assess that aspect of gameplay, as well

BigPoppaCBONE

So, now that I have thought about it further, I do have a few comments — nothing negative, just some thoughts:

1. I am truly hopeful that as we move forward, the concept of Defender and Attacker is removed from design considerations. Some of the worst characters to play were designed to be AW defenders, in my opinion. Not only do some of us not even play AW, it’s just one game mode in a game that has numerous other modes that require lanes to be cleared

2. If there is going to be design specific for AW defense, I honestly feel those characters should be put into a specific AW Defense Crystal in Arena and the Store and if people want to grind for them or buy them/use shards on them, great. But players shouldn’t get stuck with a poor-performing character on offense for all other modes of gameplay, ESPECIALLY if they’re not even playing AW

3. DPS and Utility are all subjective, and I don’t pretend to be a design expert. But my personal opinion is that while it can always be a pleasant surprise when, say, Medusa hits really hard, nothing is more frustrating than when a character expected to be good doesn’t perform well. I am hopeful that as this Rework Team assesses characters, some attention is given to characters who might be OK via performance data but don’t feel “right” to play — for example, take OG Hulk. I have little doubt that OG Hulk wins almost all of his fights. But the kit is just not fun to play, and my hope is that some time is taken to assess that aspect of gameplay, as well

Hulkbuster is a good start with different abilities as attacker and defender. My preference prior to his release was for them to make strong AW defenders if they want, but they need to have some solo synergies (or mode specific abilities) to make them fun in the game modes where you actually play them.

DNA3000

Is no one going to talk about the Easter Egg? I say Apocalypse.

Play this month's EQ.

Cma1323

Question about the class based crystals, is there going to be a limit you can get per day or round? Also Professer X of course and I will say Onslaught instead of Apocalypse, but he is my 3rd choice. I think Apocalypse will come later in the year and be out next AQ boss, but it could be onslaught as well.

ESF

So, now that I have thought about it further, I do have a few comments — nothing negative, just some thoughts:

1. I am truly hopeful that as we move forward, the concept of Defender and Attacker is removed from design considerations. Some of the worst characters to play were designed to be AW defenders, in my opinion. Not only do some of us not even play AW, it’s just one game mode in a game that has numerous other modes that require lanes to be cleared

2. If there is going to be design specific for AW defense, I honestly feel those characters should be put into a specific AW Defense Crystal in Arena and the Store and if people want to grind for them or buy them/use shards on them, great. But players shouldn’t get stuck with a poor-performing character on offense for all other modes of gameplay, ESPECIALLY if they’re not even playing AW

3. DPS and Utility are all subjective, and I don’t pretend to be a design expert. But my personal opinion is that while it can always be a pleasant surprise when, say, Medusa hits really hard, nothing is more frustrating than when a character expected to be good doesn’t perform well. I am hopeful that as this Rework Team assesses characters, some attention is given to characters who might be OK via performance data but don’t feel “right” to play — for example, take OG Hulk. I have little doubt that OG Hulk wins almost all of his fights. But the kit is just not fun to play, and my hope is that some time is taken to assess that aspect of gameplay, as well
Hulkbuster is a good start with different abilities as attacker and defender. My preference prior to his release was for them to make strong AW defenders if they want, but they need to have some solo synergies (or mode specific abilities) to make them fun in the game modes where you actually play them.

I absolutely hate Synergies, but I totally agree that Hulkbuster is a good mix of offense and defense

I just hate the fact that a few characters like Ebony Maw are so ineffective when you play them. Not to go down a rabbit hole, but Maw is Exhibit A because he almost can’t hit harder on offense because of how he is designed to work defensively

AwesomoChaos

Promising changes. Of course the devil's in the details. All of these roadmaps have lots of grand plans but until we see the execution I'm not going to celebrate.

Why bother with Overhauls at all? I think usually (always?) the reason why bad champs are unplayable is because the numbers are bad. Just change the numbers. We don't need new animations or skins or kits or likely even ability changes. Seems like it'd be better to spend finite resources on other more needed changes.

(Tangent: How come Hulkbuster's short-armed heavy wasn't fixed/adjusted during his overhaul?)

L3X85

@Kabam Miike
I know that 6* crystal pool is not that big right now, but as it is a lot of work to build for a 6* crystal, the emotion in opening one is even bigger.

Can you guys at least consider this: not dual, but maybe triple class 6*?
Thanks in advance, and for all of your hard work. I'm slowly getting amped again for this game, with this roadmap

Later edit: My idea on 5* featured, out of these 2 options, maybe:
1. Contains the last 6 months new added champs (the 2 new go in next month, the oldest 2 go in general pool) for 15 k shards
2. Contains top 10-15 champs community agree on god-tier and beyond, for 20k shards
Just a thought

hungryhungrybbq

This is all pretty exciting. Looking forward to seeing how things develop. Love that the team is making moves towards a long desired design shift. Moving away from using restrictive content as a means to promote diverse champion use and moving towards making more champions useful overall. Maybe we can get to a point where we use the champions we want to play, not the champions we need to play. It's way more fun that way. 🙂

And I like the fact that there are no plans to change well established favorites. There's a large portion of the community that uses champs like Ghost and Quake (and many others) not just because they are excellent champions once you master their playstyle, but also because they are really fun to play. For some of us it goes way beyond just using them as a tool in our toolbox of champions. Some of us have practiced using them for hours and hours learning the intricacies of how to use them best in different scenarios. And we each have slightly different methods. I feel like I have developed my own personal theory for playing Ghost for example. Sure, there are certain methods that we all share, but we also put our own spin on the way we play them. As we do for other characters as well. But part of what makes Ghost and Quake so popular is not just effectiveness at certain tasks, but also that their design and playstyle is unique, fun and enjoyable. We've developed a relationship with many of our favorite characters that could never be replaced by a stack of rank up materials returned to our account.

Narrowing the crystal pools is great step for the game and may help alleviate a huge pain point. It seems like we're moving into a great time for company/player relations. Glad to see all the positive changes and communication happening. 🥂

Seraphion

Check out the latest Champions of the Contest, our latest Dev Diary which explores our philosophy of Champion Design, how that translates into our vision for the future, our new rebalance cadence, which Magento is getting buffed, and information on a couple new crystals coming to the Contest!

Read all about it on our Blog!

Then don't forget to read our final Dev Diary of the series, which will be coming soon! We're going to talk about the future of the Contest, and updates to Incursions, Arenas, and so much more!

I hope you dont forget the masteries

(Free and easy to change once unlocked)

Mr_Platypus

WOW Cant wait for the NERF!!! bloody unethical company! Partnering unethical CCP for them to gain view for revenue to falsely show casing champions ability & bait players to spend their hard earn $$$$ to get the champion & rank up material then Nerf it to the ground after all the $$$$ collected! All these road map just to bait player to spend on july 4th when nothing are done yet. F**k July 4th offer!!!!

Get a grip mate, the mention of nerfs was purely so that if something ends up being stupidly overpowered they can tone it down without anyone flipping tables, it’s essentially just a disclaimer that they have the right to nerf anything at anytime if required.

Their balance testing team can’t catch everyone , you think they tested quake using the ‘Quake and bake’ method everyone uses now? Definitely not, it took the community about a year to discover that method and before that Quake was considered a prestige champ.

MadEyeMoody_333

I like it!
Can we get a cyclops buff?

You mean nerf.. he is beyond beyond God Tier

bloodyCain

About time for a more clear champion description.

There are some examples that got on my nerve seeing them not being clear at all:

1) Gambit - There is no detail saying "The rate he gains a Kinetic Charge while blocking will be slower depending on the amount of Kinetic Charge he already has".

2) Ability Accuracy addition - please make sure when use (+X%) Ability Accuracy, make is super clear. It has to be stated either a flat ability accuracy addition or addition from the existence percentage. For example, Black Widow Deadly Origin has description a flat 60% increase shock ability accuracy from her light attack while Widow's Insight is active resulting to 100% chance to activate. However, for Quake synergy with Hawkeye it just states "All champions gain +X% Ability Accuracy" which we all thought a flat addition but it was not.

3) Making sure champions ability can be reactivated when reduced by Domino's critical failure ability or other champs' Fate seal ability. There was time King Groot's cycle of getting Fury and Regen buff had completely decimated after getting a Fate Seal from Ghost Rider's fate seal and Domino's critical failure.

4) Howard the Duck's SP2 effects need to be cleared, IMO.

That's all for me. Thanks for reading

Mr_Platypus

WOW Cant wait for the NERF!!! bloody unethical company! Partnering unethical CCP for them to gain view for revenue to falsely show casing champions ability & bait players to spend their hard earn $$$$ to get the champion & rank up material then Nerf it to the ground after all the $$$$ collected! All these road map just to bait player to spend on july 4th when nothing are done yet. F**k July 4th offer!!!!

With all the game data they had over 5 years & new champion they created & released they wont know how good the champion going to be? when this champion need to be NERF clearly show is their business tactic, scamming is the correct way to descried them. Dont spend on July 4th, make good use of your $$$$, PS5 coming soon, way more value then feeding this unethical company

Quake - took a year for people to realise how good she was when played just holding the heavy attack. Was literally considered worse than CapWW2 when released.

Corvus - was considered to be worse than proxima, so much so that the first round of 5* corvus went for less than 20mil (I believe the actual cut off was something like 15mil), then people realised how good he could be.

Ghost - took a couple months to realise how effective she is.

How can kabam know the absolute top end damage output or OP method of using a champ when we, the community can’t figure it out on release either.
The community has better players and far, far more of them than kabams testing team so obviously we are going to find things that they didn’t through skill or sheer number of hours played within the first week of that champs release.
You mention the PS5, pretty much all console games have a disclaimer saying that you don’t own the game, that doesn’t mean they’ll come knocking on your door in a week asking you to hand over your disc.

So calm down, the nerf thing was just a disclaimer in case they release a champ and it requires a nerf whether because of bug or an unexpected method of play.

Rasilover

5 star basics are now officially worthless

unknown

This content has been removed.

Potatolegion

I really like this and genuinely hope kabam can keep this up. My only concern is the part where you said you may nerf champions. Now I agree that sometimes a slight rebalancing is necessary, but don't take this too far. Don't nerf a champion that a large number of people have heavily invested in to too much. Numerical values (E.G. the potency of a fury effect) are fine as long as it isn't taken too far.

Bulmkt

Thank God there will be an update made to Gambit

Hopefully that duped 6* Gambit I own will be a champ worth using....

Seraphion

About time we get clear info and some rules in champion ability.

We are still wondering how Ghost phase crit works. It says " guaranteed crit " yet things like glancing can reduce it (I know kabam once said "Cant" is stronger than "Can").

But she also doesnt crit vs critresistance from Emma or Nodes for example which a lot of ppl dont agree with bc it doesnt say "100% crit"

Time to clean up stuff like this.

phillgreen

I'd love to see the entire champ list rated against Kabams spectrum.

Covus_Corax2020

Did I miss anything about quest crystals? I'm not using these anymore as 75 iso even on a 3 star champ is pretty pointless. Surely these need updating from a QoL perspective.

Also pulling 40% XP boost after getting to level 60 is frustrating. Unless of course kabam plan to up the summoner level!

unknown

This content has been removed.

KDoggg2017

I really like what I see.

And they said we couldn't find common ground. ☺😊☺

Capn_Dante

Did I miss anything about quest crystals? I'm not using these anymore as 75 iso even on a 3 star champ is pretty pointless. Surely these need updating from a QoL perspective.

Also pulling 40% XP boost after getting to level 60 is frustrating. Unless of course kabam plan to up the summoner level!

Hopefully the quest crystals and many other things are addressed in the QOL/misc road map coming out... I believe they mentioned that level 60 will be the cap but I use xp boosts during item use