With the release of Mister Negative, Kabam have introduced a new champion who punishes abilities like Nullify and Stagger. That's fine - I like the idea, as a concept. However, personally I'm unhappy about the fact that it triggers
even if there's no buff present to Nullify. It also seems that unusual champs with 'limited' Nullify abilities (several being non-Mystic) are being penalised whilst fighting him.
Let's take a quick look at Captain America Infinity War fighting Mister Negative in the new EQ. It's a fairly one-sided fight...
Mister Negative isn't unique here, by the way. This type of issue
actually already applied to Annihilus (who sacrifices his Cosmic Control Rod for three strong Fury effects to protect himself from Nullify); but now also applies to Mister Negative, who is even nastier. As he inflicts direct damage whenever he's affected by Nullify, I imagine fighting him with Clare Voyant or Dr Strange isn't fun! But at least that's in line with Class Advantage.
However, Mister Negative's Sig ability (and Annihilus's
It's Miiine!!! ability) are being triggered by Nullify abilities that shouldn't even be in action; and in some cases aren't even described as a Nullify. A surprising number of champs with limited or situational Nullify are Science or Cosmic:
- Captain America Infinity War (nullifies Unstoppable when he's kinetically charged. This is a 'limited' Nullify: it shouldn't trigger against any other buff...)
- Thing (nullifies Unstoppable with Stopping Power during/after Specials. This is a 'limited' Nullify: it shouldn't trigger against any other buff...)
- Iron Fist (Heavy Attacks have a 'limited' Nullify only working against Fury/Cruelty/Precision buffs. It shouldn't trigger against any other buff...)
- Ms Marvel (Nullifies buffs with Special Attacks, but only when she's got 2+ Fury effects. Occurs on most, but not all Special attacks)
- Venom (SP1 Nullifies buffs, although it's described as stealing them)
- Venompool (SP1 Nullifies buffs, although it's described as stealing them)
Note: Actually stealing buffs, with Loki, doesn't seem to qualify as a Nullify - it's different. Or at least it was when I tested all these champs against buffed Civil Warrior. So Venom/Venompool are described as Stealing buffs, but the game effect actually works as a Nullify: Loki can steal CW's Armour buffs, but the symbiotes can't.So if the Attacker can only ever Nullify buffs A, B and C; whilst the defender can never proc buffs A, B and C... Is it okay for the defender to punish the Attacker for
trying to Nullify a non-existent buff? Or trying to Nullify Buff D, which they would never have been able to Nullify at all?
And surely we need some consistency - is it okay for Loki to be safe 'stealing' Mister Negative's buffs, but for Venom to be punished for trying to do the same thing?
For me, the best comparison is with Domino. When Awakened, she punishes champs when an ability fails 'by chance'. This led to a minor outcry when she was released and fought champions like Archangel. His base chance to Poison when blocking is zero; increasing when the opponent is bleeding. It was considered unfair that Domino's degeneration was triggering when he tried to block her and she
wasn't bleeding; since his chance to succeed was zero.
Kabam listened: Domino's ability was tweaked; and doesn't arise if the opponent's Ability chance is zero.
What about Mister Negative, then?
- If he has no buffs to Nullify, is it reasonable for him to punish opponents for trying to Nullify buffs that aren't there?
- Is it reasonable for him to punish opponents whose 'limited' Nullify isn't going to be active against any buffs he might have?
This is an ability Kabam have given variations on, to two champions now: the likelihood is that there will be future champions/nodes who punish you for Nullifying them (eg. an inversion of the 'Shatter' node). I'd love to hear your thoughts about how it's applied to champions with 'limited' Nullify abilities; and for the community to let the mods/design team know them.
