**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Options
Question regarding the direction of future champs
Mr.0-8-4
Posts: 462 ★★★
Hey Kabam,
First off, great job on the champions you've been releasing these past few months. The animations and specials are top tier and really fun to play with so thank you for your efforts.
With that being said, I am curious what the plan is regarding the attack values of some of these champs. I'm aware that you guys are trying to create diversity in terms of what each character can do but doesn't it seem a little counterproductive to have a great utility champ but with really poor damage output (making them less desirable in anything past Act 5)?
I know people can have unrealistic expectations, like when they expect every champ to be the next beyond god tier but on the other hand, characters like Ebony Maw or Air Walker make it difficult for us to bring them into act 6 due to their poor damage output.
So could you guys give us some insight on what you guys had in mind when creating these champs? This is not a facetious remark, I'm genuinely asking because perhaps there's something I'm missing here.
@Kabam Miike
First off, great job on the champions you've been releasing these past few months. The animations and specials are top tier and really fun to play with so thank you for your efforts.
With that being said, I am curious what the plan is regarding the attack values of some of these champs. I'm aware that you guys are trying to create diversity in terms of what each character can do but doesn't it seem a little counterproductive to have a great utility champ but with really poor damage output (making them less desirable in anything past Act 5)?
I know people can have unrealistic expectations, like when they expect every champ to be the next beyond god tier but on the other hand, characters like Ebony Maw or Air Walker make it difficult for us to bring them into act 6 due to their poor damage output.
So could you guys give us some insight on what you guys had in mind when creating these champs? This is not a facetious remark, I'm genuinely asking because perhaps there's something I'm missing here.
@Kabam Miike
10
Comments
Take Psychoman for example. Under the right circumstances, he's a great defender but as a attacker, his damage output is pretty low. This makes an enjoyable champ become a bench warmer because by the time he starts using his abilities, the block damage is quickly killing him.
Which is to say, they've given tons of insight into how they design and balance champions over time. The problem stems not from what they say, but how people interpret what they say. The devs have their opinions, the players have theirs. Or rather, each player has theirs. Their reasoning makes sense to them, and it will make sense to you if you assume they don't think like you. Most people assume everyone else must think like them, so when the devs say something like "we intended this champ to have more utility" if *they* don't think the champ has good utility that means the devs must be lying or insane. Instead, they just disagree.
Just looking around at the wide range of opinions represented in the player community, from the forums to the Reddit to Youtube, it is easy to see how the devs could think differently than any particular player. But on top of that, the developer's opinions are informed by something none of us has access to: datamining. People can say a champ is useful or useless, popular or unpopular, but that's just guessing. The devs actually know, because they have the data. The devs know exactly how often every champ is played, how often every champ wins a fight or loses a fight, every time a champ is brought into AQ or AW, every time a champ is ranked up, every time a champ is sold. They know exactly how many crystals people bought that contained that champion as a featured champ, how many points people scored to earn them in the arena, how many units were spent trying to pull them. They don't have to guess.
And often, the data probably disagrees with the most popular player opinions. But the devs aren't going to come on the forums and post when people have things wrong. Look at what happened when one mod mentioned in passing what their data said about a champ that disagreed with vocal opinion: it became the biggest meme of the game.
So they could tell you in general how they design champs and what their priorities are, but to be candid I could tell you that as well, because they've either stated or signaled that clearly if you accept what they say at face value. But to understand why they think what they think you would also need access to the data they have, and rarely do they share that data, and even when they do the players dispute its accuracy.
Last thing. Sometimes the devs miss their target. They aim for this, but they hit that instead. The devs do not in general tweak something until it is perfect. If the champ lands within some large radius of the original intent, that's where it stays. That's just how it goes. Close enough is close enough, and close enough is not actually very close.
It's possible that a similar thing happened with Air-Walker and co. For whatever reason, they were dealing too much damage before their release, so Kabam, instead of nerfing them slightly after release, took most of their damage away with the intention of giving it back later. They're on a tight release schedule, if a champ takes too much longer than expected, they may not be fully balanced at the time of release
Using a particular quest as the base.
Act 5 cpater 4.
So they are usable. Act 5 is not outdated but not extremely fresh either yet gives you enough challange to enjoy the game.
I don't think that the maximum potential of every champion is actually common knowledge. If we buffed champs just because there's no common knowledge way of getting good performance out of them, that could mean buffing champs that don't need buffs, overbuffing champs too much and then requiring nerfs when their potential is unlocked, or homogenizing the champs too much by forcing all of them to be the kinds of champs the current player meta appreciates at the moment. If we did that in the past, we would have lost Magik, back when power control was considered borderline useless.
Not all champs are Doc Ocs, of course. Some are certainly underperforming, as Kabam's own buff schedule demonstrates. But I think that the players in general are way too confident in their assessments. There's been enough huge whiffs over the years to mandate some humility there.