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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.
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Buffs can be good for everyone not just newer players. Thoughts on recent Buff announcement
GrassKnuckles
Posts: 1,923 ★★★★★
Ima dissect part of what Kabam John posted:
“There has been a lot of chatter about how champion reworks and updates have changed. We are still approaching reworks the same way we always have, and we want to reestablish our goals and parameters of these champ revamp efforts.”
The thing is that i think buffs aren’t the same as 2021, when they say that they will be approached like the always have. 2021 sometimes had buffs that came with a lot of text and different abilities, for instance Diablo, Ebony Maw and Joe Fixit. Of course not every buff that year came with a lot of text but those stick out in my mind a bit. Another thing different is that 2022 has buffed fairly old champs, with the exception of Psycho Man, whereas last year they had buffed champs from many different years, some of which from 2019 which wasn’t considered old at the time. There has been a shift to what champs will be getting buffed recently…
The goals have always been:
Give Champions an update that will help them feel more meaningful, especially for newer players who usually have fewer options to deal with challenges
When it says especially for newer players, that’s a great thing, but newer players isn’t everyone. In fact it’s not a huge portion of players, even though there are many. Older/Endgame players still want to be impressed and have a meaningful impact on their account too. And champs like Xpool and Jane feel like just another waste to them. There can be a way to make champs simple, for newer players, yet effective for everyone. Take Nebula for example. Nebula is simple to use, hold block, parry and SP2. There isn’t a super complicated rotation, there isn’t a need to intercept or other complex mechanics, she isn’t that hard for a newer player to learn. When you’re a newer player, the content you play has attack pools relatively close to your own, meaning the block damage you take is somewhat minimal. You also might have a harder time parrying if youre new, which yes isnt the easiest thing to do at that level, but only needs to be done once. Consider the impact that Nebula has on top tier players as well. She’s used quite often in AW, and great for nearly every other content.
An even better example of a champ being good for the new and old is Storm. Storm is super easy to use. 5 hit combo, SP2 with maybe some heavies if you want. Again, no need to intercept, no abilities dependent on parry, and she’s great for new players and has uses for the older ones.
and, To increase a relative sense of excitement when these champs are pulled from a crystal.
This doesn’t say for which type of player it will increase excitement for. I can tell you now, I’m not top of the game but I still wouldn’t be happy if I pulled a Xpool.
Many of the Champions that get reworks are obtained regularly in the early game, especially those with 1- and 2-star versions.
Again, this is a newer change, because many reworks in 2021 were for slightly newer champs.
While it may feel like eons ago that many of you used a 2-Star Champion, they are still regularly used by new players. For these Champions, one of our priorities is to keep them feeling simple and easy to understand. Giving a Champion some new tools to play with, but keeping their original theme.
Again you can make a champion easy to understand but good for the majority of the game at the same time. And sadly it hasn’t felt like that recently. And of course you can keep their original theme, I don’t think many would complain about that, but make their original theme meaningful and not just another fly on the wall
So with the announcement of Juggernaut, Ant Man and Rocket being buffed, they are all old champs, in fact very old champs, keeping the trend lately of old champs being buffed which is great. But again, a buff can be good yet simple. One doesn’t have to be without the other
“There has been a lot of chatter about how champion reworks and updates have changed. We are still approaching reworks the same way we always have, and we want to reestablish our goals and parameters of these champ revamp efforts.”
The thing is that i think buffs aren’t the same as 2021, when they say that they will be approached like the always have. 2021 sometimes had buffs that came with a lot of text and different abilities, for instance Diablo, Ebony Maw and Joe Fixit. Of course not every buff that year came with a lot of text but those stick out in my mind a bit. Another thing different is that 2022 has buffed fairly old champs, with the exception of Psycho Man, whereas last year they had buffed champs from many different years, some of which from 2019 which wasn’t considered old at the time. There has been a shift to what champs will be getting buffed recently…
The goals have always been:
Give Champions an update that will help them feel more meaningful, especially for newer players who usually have fewer options to deal with challenges
When it says especially for newer players, that’s a great thing, but newer players isn’t everyone. In fact it’s not a huge portion of players, even though there are many. Older/Endgame players still want to be impressed and have a meaningful impact on their account too. And champs like Xpool and Jane feel like just another waste to them. There can be a way to make champs simple, for newer players, yet effective for everyone. Take Nebula for example. Nebula is simple to use, hold block, parry and SP2. There isn’t a super complicated rotation, there isn’t a need to intercept or other complex mechanics, she isn’t that hard for a newer player to learn. When you’re a newer player, the content you play has attack pools relatively close to your own, meaning the block damage you take is somewhat minimal. You also might have a harder time parrying if youre new, which yes isnt the easiest thing to do at that level, but only needs to be done once. Consider the impact that Nebula has on top tier players as well. She’s used quite often in AW, and great for nearly every other content.
An even better example of a champ being good for the new and old is Storm. Storm is super easy to use. 5 hit combo, SP2 with maybe some heavies if you want. Again, no need to intercept, no abilities dependent on parry, and she’s great for new players and has uses for the older ones.
and, To increase a relative sense of excitement when these champs are pulled from a crystal.
This doesn’t say for which type of player it will increase excitement for. I can tell you now, I’m not top of the game but I still wouldn’t be happy if I pulled a Xpool.
Many of the Champions that get reworks are obtained regularly in the early game, especially those with 1- and 2-star versions.
Again, this is a newer change, because many reworks in 2021 were for slightly newer champs.
While it may feel like eons ago that many of you used a 2-Star Champion, they are still regularly used by new players. For these Champions, one of our priorities is to keep them feeling simple and easy to understand. Giving a Champion some new tools to play with, but keeping their original theme.
Again you can make a champion easy to understand but good for the majority of the game at the same time. And sadly it hasn’t felt like that recently. And of course you can keep their original theme, I don’t think many would complain about that, but make their original theme meaningful and not just another fly on the wall
So with the announcement of Juggernaut, Ant Man and Rocket being buffed, they are all old champs, in fact very old champs, keeping the trend lately of old champs being buffed which is great. But again, a buff can be good yet simple. One doesn’t have to be without the other
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Comments
Also the feeling of pulling a bad champ is still there, it’s just now that champ has been reworked.
I’m so exited for his buff
I don't understand this part. Aren't the vast majority of champs available as a 2*? AuntMai tells me 221 of the 228 champs are available as 2* champs. So the vast majority of champs should be equally likely of being pulled by a newer player. This just some BS logic they hope people don't pick up on or am I missing something?
Also, I'd like to see the data that shows newer players "regularly" using 1 and 2-star champs. Until then, I remain skeptic. Early progression in this game has been streamlined so much in the past 1-2 years. 3* and above aren't that hard to obtain.
And 1* availability should not be the deciding factor of who is buffed lol.
I agree with you about the complexity factor. Magneto's ease-of-use is a 4.5/5 (official rating by Kabam). So a great buff and being simple to use/understand aren't mutually exclusive things. Not sure why they are trying so hard to make it seem like they are. (and before I get hit with all the outrage, I'm not saying every buff has to be Magneto level).
New players?
Experience players?
Psycho Man fanboys and fangirls?
Whoever it was aimed at, I don’t know what it really did to the champ that was worth the time and effort. Maybe I should take mine to r4 to see his TRUE potential…. 😐 (challenges someone to post 6* R4 Psycho Man gameplay lol)
Either way I’m glad they’re at least putting more effort into announcing when they’re coming, who they are and what their initial intent it. At the very least it’ll stop the myriad “next month” posts on the forum.
For champs like jugs the bar is set pretty low initially because of their current uselessness, but it doesn't mean making them a tiny little better is enough to make those champs relevant for anyone
Heck even people in act 7 still ask things like " why is Spiderman evading venom to this day"
But the more important one is: many if not most 2* champs are not in the normal crystals. They only exist in the special collector crystals. I have literally opened thousands of crystals that contain 2* champs (like 2* crystals and PHCs). This includes a lot of collector crystals and the Marvel Insider crystals which contain collector champs. According to the game, I still don't have very old champs like OG Captain Marvel, or Beast, or Gwenpool. I'm not sure if all of them are absent from the normal crystals, but if all of the champs were equally likely to appear in the common champion crystals, the odds that I would be missing several older champs like this are vanishingly small.
That's why this approach of "some buffs are targetted at newer players" never made any sense to me if the buff is going to be useful only for initial 4-6 months
Also the way some kits are designed for these buffed champions doesn't actually support their argument of the buff being designed for newer players
Is MCOC a casual friendly game? Can you just pick it up and start playing it? How much do you really need to know? These are questions you actually cannot answer accurately within the first few minutes of playing it. But that doesn't matter: new players will form an opinion anyway. That opinion will not be based on what MCOC is, because they won't know what it is. It will be based on what MCOC seems to be. If they play the game and they don't know what's going on and don't want to read a ton of text to find out, that can easily be the thing that makes them say eh, let's try something else.
Most people do not initially choose what to play based on the parts they like. They choose based on what parts they don't like. They are looking for a veto, and when they find it they move on, at least until they've played enough to become invested in it. Engagement designers are constantly looking for those points of friction and trying to reduce or eliminate them. A minority of players look for a game that has what they want, and are willing to push through the gates to get it. The majority are looking for a game that doesn't annoy them, and are willing to walk away from the parts they like to avoid the parts they don't like, in the early stages when they can take it or leave it.
There must be a hook: something to like. But there must also be as little immediate turnoffs as possible besides that. And developers do not just wake up one day and decide to focus on such things. Only three things can do that: the boss, the boss's wife, and data. In this case it is probably data.
The statement is that they are used regularly, no comparison is made. The game forces you to use 2 stars for some fights, is that a metric that should be considered?
During some months you basically get given a 3 star for free, so I imagine some players just assume "higher stars = stronger"
So I doubt they'll be using 2 stars for long
I sure didn't.