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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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The Absence Of Old-Champion Buffs
GrassKnuckles
Posts: 1,923 ★★★★★
As we all know by now, the rebalancing system is how we get updates to champions. We've had it since April of 2022 now. Within this system, new champions go through a process, to make sure they are both working as intended, and to give them just the right amount of relevancy. As far as old champions are concerned, they would often have their own buff announced, with the newer-champion-rebalancing-notes. However, the last old-champ-buff announcement dates all the way back to January 27th, 2023. Meaning, we have now gone over six months, without a buff to an older champion. I for one am saddened by the loss of these buffs.
I love the feeling newer champs give, to where they always feel like they have a place in the contest, even if it isn't immediate. Example, my personal favorite champ, Gorr. Gorr was what i feel like many people will agree with, underwhelming. However, he was later buffed (or in the newer form of the word, rebalanced) to make him incredibly relevant on attack, to go along with his defensive promise. Rebalancing being preformed on newer champs is one of the best systems Kabam has ever introduced.
However, rebalancing hasn't been quite as successful to older champions. While newer champs constantly getting updates when needed has been wonderful, older champions once had a very strong part in the system as well. For instance, America Chavez is absolutely bonkers because of this process. Spider Man is now a relevant attacker (more relevant than you might think.) And Iceman while not a perfect buff, does do some impressive things.
Since we are now a full 6 months after the last old-champ-buff announcement, I can confidently say I do strongly miss what once was. And, I also wonder, what did happen to cause the disappearance?
If we look back, the rebalance notes after the Iceman announcement were the Shuri/Attuma notes. Shuri and Attuma both had massive flaws with their kits. Flaws that did in fact warrant the absence of an older champ buff. After that, Mantis notes. Mantis while not having issues as significant as the two prior, did need fixing. Still warranting the absence of an older buff, however, was a little but disappointing.
The month after though, Absorbing Man and Zemo. These two got small changes, mainly for defensive purposes. As I am not a Kabam employee, I do not know how much time/effort was needed to be put into the fixing of those small issues. Was it enough to warrant no buff announcements? I simply do not know. Then Cassie and Future Ant Man. These two got...well bug fixes. And here is the problem for me. Considering a bug fix part of a rebalancing does not feel, shall I say accurate. At least not accurate enough to justify the absence of an older buff. To my knowledge, which could be slightly inaccurate but bear with me, Future Ant Man's glancing was not working as intended. So his rebalance was to issue a fixed glance. There are other notes explaining that his new glance needed experimental time, which I do understand, but again, did that warrant the absence of an old buff?
At the end of the day, what I am really asking for is communication. Six months is a long time, long enough to make me wonder if we will see an older champ get buffed at all in the near future. Viv vision needed updates, I suspect Shocker and Sandman will need them too, but how long will it be before another older champion buff announcement? Will we see another older champ buff announcement again at all? Why weren't there older champion buff announcements in the recent months? Why haven't we received communication to why they've been absent? Which is a question I know many have been asking lately. So again, all I'm asking for is clarity to what has happened to the buff program
I love the feeling newer champs give, to where they always feel like they have a place in the contest, even if it isn't immediate. Example, my personal favorite champ, Gorr. Gorr was what i feel like many people will agree with, underwhelming. However, he was later buffed (or in the newer form of the word, rebalanced) to make him incredibly relevant on attack, to go along with his defensive promise. Rebalancing being preformed on newer champs is one of the best systems Kabam has ever introduced.
However, rebalancing hasn't been quite as successful to older champions. While newer champs constantly getting updates when needed has been wonderful, older champions once had a very strong part in the system as well. For instance, America Chavez is absolutely bonkers because of this process. Spider Man is now a relevant attacker (more relevant than you might think.) And Iceman while not a perfect buff, does do some impressive things.
Since we are now a full 6 months after the last old-champ-buff announcement, I can confidently say I do strongly miss what once was. And, I also wonder, what did happen to cause the disappearance?
If we look back, the rebalance notes after the Iceman announcement were the Shuri/Attuma notes. Shuri and Attuma both had massive flaws with their kits. Flaws that did in fact warrant the absence of an older champ buff. After that, Mantis notes. Mantis while not having issues as significant as the two prior, did need fixing. Still warranting the absence of an older buff, however, was a little but disappointing.
The month after though, Absorbing Man and Zemo. These two got small changes, mainly for defensive purposes. As I am not a Kabam employee, I do not know how much time/effort was needed to be put into the fixing of those small issues. Was it enough to warrant no buff announcements? I simply do not know. Then Cassie and Future Ant Man. These two got...well bug fixes. And here is the problem for me. Considering a bug fix part of a rebalancing does not feel, shall I say accurate. At least not accurate enough to justify the absence of an older buff. To my knowledge, which could be slightly inaccurate but bear with me, Future Ant Man's glancing was not working as intended. So his rebalance was to issue a fixed glance. There are other notes explaining that his new glance needed experimental time, which I do understand, but again, did that warrant the absence of an old buff?
At the end of the day, what I am really asking for is communication. Six months is a long time, long enough to make me wonder if we will see an older champ get buffed at all in the near future. Viv vision needed updates, I suspect Shocker and Sandman will need them too, but how long will it be before another older champion buff announcement? Will we see another older champ buff announcement again at all? Why weren't there older champion buff announcements in the recent months? Why haven't we received communication to why they've been absent? Which is a question I know many have been asking lately. So again, all I'm asking for is clarity to what has happened to the buff program
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Comments
I agree with everything you have said and still have the exact same questions.
We still have so many old but classic champs such as Doctor Strange, Thor, Iron Man, for example. These champs are super popular and have been so for a very long time, but still have not been done justice. For those who were around before the 12.0 update (Nerf), you know these champs were the best.
Now, nobody even uses them.
Sad but true.
A few of us still believe...