Shiny Object Syndrome? KT1 Speaks the Truth on Morbius

Theres been a ton of hype surrounding Morbius lately but one should try to remain purely objective and practical in their analysis of the champ.

Note: The primary purpose of this thread is for summoners to suggest ways that Kabam can use as feedback to better improve the champion.

However in order to suggest room for improvement /tuneup, we must first show that he isn’t as shiny and flashy as everyone may see him as.

1st his damage is mainly from the sp2 , and you have to be very aggressive to even get his big damage off the sp2 which means needing AI cooperation and also the fact that if you cant really ramp him to even land a strong sp2 , for instance by having to heavy , then the “shiny big yellow numbers” that had everyone impressed arent practical. An example of this is Rintrah since you have to constantly knock him down to maintain his charges and prevent him from going unstoppable. Another example is just the AI turtling, given how erratic the AI has been lately, it can be difficult stacking as many bleeds.

Also, its not just bleed immunes hes hampered by unduped, its a ton of champs that you dont want to be bleeding in the first place. For example, domino, bishop, or havok. Even if you had him duped, with high sig the bleeds would compromise these fights. Here’s where I think the dupe could’ve instead been a prefight to pick between rupture or bleed.

It’s not just the issue with the bleeds, but champs that rely on crits for their source of damage have their own hindrances, for e.g manthing, sinister or nova.

A lesser point but one that’s counterintuitive by design is making the sp2 heal after the big crit making it not heal for most of the time as the enemy would be dead before the heal even applied

Another point is that amongst the other 7* champs, Morbius ranks amongst the lowest in numerous base stats such as health pool, crit rating, crit damage etc. his armor rating /block proficiency are also below average so he’ll be taking a lot of damage and he doesn’t have resistances or immunities outside the sig to help with this.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=rHSNgBe1Rgw

In this video you can see how KT1 uses a chart of some of the most common BGs defenders of which Morbius hardly makes the list as a viable option compared to the other science class champs. Surprisingly even from the Mystic class, a ton of mystic options are marked as no. Skill/science defenders are also flooded with “no”.

I can just see someone commenting down below that “not all champs are meant to be BG champs, some are for story”. But the reality is that basically any champ can do story and it gives champs hardly any value in contrast to a more competitive setting. And even in the setting of AQ/AW which is hardly relevant compared to BGs when you look at the rewards. Sure, when story content and AQ/AW was still the primary game mode of the game, a champ with regen supression and power control would have been very beneficial to have.

So now onto the main point of the thread - which is to suggest ways that Kabam can better improve the champion

First and foremost, the psionic glide should last longer so that it is viable against longer animations. It isnt always easy to get the spacing and timing right on the glide so it wouldnt make him op.

Also, it wouldn’t have hurt to make base the chances of inflicting the bleed higher than 20%. Even with the Fervor buff, I’ve gone 10 hits without a single bleed.

The sig ability of undying seems like a significantly cheap knockoff of immortality as even just a hit into block can finish him and we know that given the abhorrent controls this isn’t unlikely to occur with things like dropped dex inputs. What they can do is make it so that he can phase on every dash in when at 1% with a damaging effect. This would at least make the invincibility somewhat worth while.

Regarding the issue of bleed immunity, debuff shrugging, or AI turtling to prevent bleeds, one potential improvement as stated above could be to have the dupe give the option to select between bleeds and ruptures as part of a prefight.

In Conclusion, the champ isnt bad and he’ll definitely shine with the decay nodes in BGs, but after that, people may start to realize that that big and flashy sp2 may not be as practical and feasible to pull off in BGs for a large variety of Defender, Node, and AI behavior matchups.

Are there any suggestions you can think of to improve Morbius? Drop them down in the comments below.

Comments

AMS94

While I agree that Morbius is kinda overrated, like most champs are at the time of release, but the argument that him inflicting bleed debuffs somehow lowers his value bcoz there are a handful of champs & nodes that punish bleeds doesn't seem to have much footing.....Though I wholeheartedly agree with the bleed or rupture pre fight idea

ahmynuts

OP i think you're missing the point completely here. We all wanted Morbius because it was Morbius and the Morbin time meme is funny. We didnt care how good or bad he was because it was him. Kabam obviously knew this which is why they made him the bonus champ lol. It's less of shiny object syndrome and more of the meme just making people feel the need to get him lmao.

That being said he could definitely be improved and you have some good ideas here

Polygon

While I agree that Morbius is kinda overrated, like most champs are at the time of release, but the argument that him inflicting bleed debuffs somehow lowers his value bcoz there are a handful of champs & nodes that punish bleeds doesn't seem to have much footing.....Though I wholeheartedly agree with the bleed or rupture pre fight idea

Its not necessarily that inflicting bleeds lowers his value, but the fact that he needs to ramp those bleeds to make the most use out of his sp2 , which is his primary source of damage. Bleed immunity /shrug aside (if we ignore class disadvantage and shrug nodes and assume sig 20), he still has to play aggressive enough to keep those bleeds stacked, and if the AI turtles up , holding block, or refuses to throw their sp1 or sp2 , those bleeds will start expiring. Additionally, a champ that relies on playing aggressive has disadvantages in that nodes like Ebb and Flow Knockdown or defenders like Rintrah where you have to keep heavying them, can drastically hinder the stacking bleeds

Vanitelia

He's another tool in the toolbox so to speak. As much as we hope that champs fit in that "swiss army knife" group of champs that can do anything, some are released that are niche-types. Those with diverse rosters will see Morbius differently than someone who has a limited one.

I, for one, have only played him in arenas and one round of incursions. Fun to play but I do have options that can do what he does but better. He'll get better once he is awakened since there aren't many rupture-immune champs out there. For me, he's a welcomed addition to my roster. Probably won't use him as often, but that's okay with me.

HungaryHippo

Anyone who was relatively objective would come to the same conclusion as KT1. Morbius will be good for Decay until that tactic goes away. Then everyone will regret taking him to r2.

Make ruptures his default (or selectable), give him slow (when petrified), and that helps.

Deacon

well first, big fan of KT1. second, i like Morbius. didn't expect a world beater .. just Morbius and he's that. IT'S MORBIN TIME! that's all i wanted personally lol.

could he be better? of course. most champs in the game could be better.

Shiroihara

He's my first rank 2. I had the cats and I was a bit tired of strategic rank ups. I wanted to rank up something fun to play with. I mean, he's a fricking vampire!
I've had first hand experience against Rintrah and the cow walked all over me

Can't say I regret it though. I look forward to duping him at some point.

Milan1405

Another problem with morbius is that the science class is so competitive that he comes up short when compared to a lot of the top options like hulk, overseer, titania, silk, ham now photon etc.

GroundedWisdom

He's a Champ, just like any. Some good uses, some bad matchups, and useful for what he's good for. I didn't expect them to give a 7* "God Tier" for 30 dollars. Either way I'm happy to have a new 7*.

GrO_ot

To call a champ that has fairly simple and uncomplicated access to unblockable attacks and 120k sp2 anything but good, is stupid.

No one is saying he is the best science champ in the game, but he will definitely be in most BG decks next season.

For my part, as a 7*, he will probably be on most of my science teams in EQ/SQ together with Void, CAIW, OG Hulk and Scorpion…its like AA, if they bleed - he will kill.

Milan1405

He's a Champ, just like any. Some good uses, some bad matchups, and useful for what he's good for. I didn't expect them to give a 7* "God Tier" for 30 dollars. Either way I'm happy to have a new 7*.

I agree. He's not a bad champ and will have occasional use for me I imagine. However I think it would be a mistake to rank 2 him since there are other superior 7 stars like I listed above, unless of course, you really enjoy playing him.

Madman_marvin

I think he’s a good champ. Is he a game breaker? No. That’s ok. Just like many champs, there will be times where you don’t need to use him. Bleed vulnerability? Yes. He will destroy there. Thing while he’s unduped? Not so much. On top of that, he will probably get a buff to counter any real pain points in his kit.

Shiroihara

He's a Champ, just like any. Some good uses, some bad matchups, and useful for what he's good for. I didn't expect them to give a 7* "God Tier" for 30 dollars. Either way I'm happy to have a new 7*.
I agree. He's not a bad champ and will have occasional use for me I imagine. However I think it would be a mistake to rank 2 him since there are other superior 7 stars like I listed above, unless of course, you really enjoy playing him.

I think it's a valid point. In my case, I've been playing mcoc for a long time and I've always been overly cautious with my rank ups, always worrying that champs are not good enough to invest, to the point that resources end up being less and less relevant.
I have 15 7-stars and Spider-Gwen as my only other science champ. The irony is that I kept pulling 6-star science rank up gems from everywhere for the longest.
Anyway, to sump up, f it. I like the champ and screw it being cautious.

roastedbagel

The sig ability of undying seems like a significantly cheap knockoff of immortality as even just a hit into block can finish him and we know that given the abhorrent controls this isn’t unlikely to occur with things like dropped dex inputs. What they can do is make it so that he can phase on every dash in when at 1% with a damaging effect. This would at least make the invincibility somewhat worth while.

I'm gonna venture a guess and say there was 100% focused intent on *not* replicating immortality in any way that remotely resembles what Hercules has...

If you're unclear as to why that may be, just take a look at every other video when new end game content drops and there's nothing but videos showing Hercules stomping over an entire path while on 1% health.

There should be a tradeoff of skill needed imo if being given the opportunity at a 2nd chance/immortality, not just "mash buttons hard and fast"

Vance2_jr

When it’s called ‘KT1in’ time’, then and ONLY then will I give a poop about what he says about my sweet, beautiful Morbius.

Noob_Master69

In my opinion him being more fragile is okay because of his access to heals from the SP2/3

I do agree however that having him heal after the big burst of damage when the fight will most likely be over is something I'd like to have changed. I'm not sure how they could best do this seeing as any champ abilities stop after a defender hits 0%, but I hope they'll figure that out

RiderofHell

Just like how Ibom was considered trash in the early days then suddenly everyone wants him bc the real truth came from actually spending time with the champ and discovery that wanted factor. I desire a lot of new champs hyped by many players and when I finally got a hold of them all the hype that created around them was simply meh to me. Example for kate I finally got around to playing with her and the meh factor comes to me why because I already have a great skill champs like Black Cat or NF even Masacre and now ppl who dismissed Black Cat suddenly desires her bc of how good she is.

Morbius may seem underrated but I am planning to enjoy using him no matter what. Sure there are other science but I am bored with them as it is and want to enjoy someone fresh and new which is what Morbius is. The game is called contest of champions not contest of hyped champions by the community. I will admit some new champs I desire did exceed my excitement and likely more of disappointment will follow but at the end of the day I like playing with champs I find fun and awesome. Sure I still have yet to get Silk.Warlock but who knows I may not even enjoy them when I get to experience them time will tell time in the meantime I will playing Morbius like any other champ in the game as fun and awesome!.

Demonzfyre

There's a reason why Kabam evaluates champs over a 6 month timeframe. We've had him for like a week or week and half?

People just need to calm down and use him and see where he fits. Haven't we learned our lesson yet for things like this?

TyDollarSign

Overhyped or not, he helped me easily take down Superior Kang for carinas challenge so shout out to the Morb for that! I think he’s just hyped because for $25 you got a ton of resources/rewards and then topped off with the cheapest 7star you’ll get for some time.

altavista

Sure, he could use a little tune up, like most champ Kabam releases. But he doesn't need those changes you are proposing.

Those changes are to get him to be a Top 5 Science champion. There is no reason he needs to be that besides a desire. The fact that he isn't as good as new Science champions like Photon or a Silk, is not enough of a reason for him to get buffed.

Needing to be buffed to be good in BGs is also not enough of a reason. With that reasoning, all champions should receive a buff to be good in BGs.

As is, he fills a niche (Science champion that can apply bleed, with CapIW being the only other and he requires an SP1 to do it) and has unique abilities (Psionic Glide and Undying).

A year later, when I have a larger 7-star roster, then Morbin time may come to an end as he settles into mid-tier science champion. And that, is perfectly fine.

Colinwhitworth69

See the Spot synergy video that was posted to YT.

Milan1405

There's a reason why Kabam evaluates champs over a 6 month timeframe. We've had him for like a week or week and half?

People just need to calm down and use him and see where he fits. Haven't we learned our lesson yet for things like this?

People are a bit hasty to judge sometimes but kabam 'evaluation' team don't know what they're talking about half the time. Like adam warlock they thought it was okay for him to get stunned in his stasis pod which is absolutely moronic. And his taunt should be passive otherwise he can't do shrug off champs or nodes like tenacity and mighty charge etc.

Demonzfyre

There's a reason why Kabam evaluates champs over a 6 month timeframe. We've had him for like a week or week and half?

People just need to calm down and use him and see where he fits. Haven't we learned our lesson yet for things like this?
People are a bit hasty to judge sometimes but kabam 'evaluation' team don't know what they're talking about half the time. Like adam warlock they thought it was okay for him to get stunned in his stasis pod which is absolutely moronic. And his taunt should be passive otherwise he can't do shrug off champs or nodes like tenacity and mighty charge etc.

I mean it's all debatable but if 1 from the dozen or more that have gone through the evaluations is all we're talking about, then I think they're doing fine.

Again, Kabam evaluates champs off what they're seeing big picture wise where we tend to only evaluate what affects our own accounts and we want benefits us more than the game.

Milan1405

There's a reason why Kabam evaluates champs over a 6 month timeframe. We've had him for like a week or week and half?

People just need to calm down and use him and see where he fits. Haven't we learned our lesson yet for things like this?
People are a bit hasty to judge sometimes but kabam 'evaluation' team don't know what they're talking about half the time. Like adam warlock they thought it was okay for him to get stunned in his stasis pod which is absolutely moronic. And his taunt should be passive otherwise he can't do shrug off champs or nodes like tenacity and mighty charge etc.
I mean it's all debatable but if 1 from the dozen or more that have gone through the evaluations is all we're talking about, then I think they're doing fine.

Again, Kabam evaluates champs off what they're seeing big picture wise where we tend to only evaluate what affects our own accounts and we want benefits us more than the game.

It's not just him tho, they botched cassie lang and other champ rebalancing. All Kabam have to do is listen a bit to the community and implement changes when there is widespread agreement for a small change that would make a champ better such as described above for adam warlock or 'un-nerf' a champ when they rebalance too far in the other direction. It's frustrating because Kabam are performing well half of the time but the other half they could avoid these screw ups by just taking a bit more care. If I had to guess, clearly some employees really love this game and take great care when implementing these balance changes, but a few of them just aren't bothered and charge ahead screwing up a perfectly good champ or not taking the opportunity to please 95% of the playerbase and slightly buff champs instead of just declaring they're fine.

Fit_Fun9329

For me it’s like that I was very sure to r2 him. I still haven’t and did sunspot.

He just does not bring enough to the table for me at the moment, don’t know

Chobbly

He's a Champ, just like any. Some good uses, some bad matchups, and useful for what he's good for. I didn't expect them to give a 7* "God Tier" for 30 dollars. Either way I'm happy to have a new 7*.

That's the thing. He was never going to be the next Hercules, because there won't be a next Hercules. The balancing programme is there to to improve champions that are underperforming after launch but also to prevent the likes of Hercules happening ever, ever again.

He's fine as he is, some good matchups and some bad. With the SP2 damage is great but feels lacking at other times. He's a good champ, not BGT, good. And that's ok.

GroundedWisdom

There's a reason why Kabam evaluates champs over a 6 month timeframe. We've had him for like a week or week and half?

People just need to calm down and use him and see where he fits. Haven't we learned our lesson yet for things like this?
People are a bit hasty to judge sometimes but kabam 'evaluation' team don't know what they're talking about half the time. Like adam warlock they thought it was okay for him to get stunned in his stasis pod which is absolutely moronic. And his taunt should be passive otherwise he can't do shrug off champs or nodes like tenacity and mighty charge etc.
I mean it's all debatable but if 1 from the dozen or more that have gone through the evaluations is all we're talking about, then I think they're doing fine.

Again, Kabam evaluates champs off what they're seeing big picture wise where we tend to only evaluate what affects our own accounts and we want benefits us more than the game.
It's not just him tho, they botched cassie lang and other champ rebalancing. All Kabam have to do is listen a bit to the community and implement changes when there is widespread agreement for a small change that would make a champ better such as described above for adam warlock or 'un-nerf' a champ when they rebalance too far in the other direction. It's frustrating because Kabam are performing well half of the time but the other half they could avoid these screw ups by just taking a bit more care. If I had to guess, clearly some employees really love this game and take great care when implementing these balance changes, but a few of them just aren't bothered and charge ahead screwing up a perfectly good champ or not taking the opportunity to please 95% of the playerbase and slightly buff champs instead of just declaring they're fine.

I think the fundamental difference with this perspective is the rebalancing program isn't specifically geared towards making people happy. It's about applying the current model they're using to the data they gather and adjusting accordingly. That's not to say that people aren't onto something at times. It just means it's not about making Champs more popular.

Crcrcrc

If we really get into it most champs in the game could be improved in various ways. But morbius is cool, he’s fun to play, and he’s a solid champ. Let people have fun with him and be excited. It’s not a bad thing to enjoy a shiny new toy that kabam has generously given basically everybody for a massive discount. People are so negative sometimes.

Not every champ needs to be the next hercules, and some champs need their awakening to be good. That’s how the game has always been, and how it will always be.

Icy000

i regret taking him to r2 ☹️

Milan1405

There's a reason why Kabam evaluates champs over a 6 month timeframe. We've had him for like a week or week and half?

People just need to calm down and use him and see where he fits. Haven't we learned our lesson yet for things like this?
People are a bit hasty to judge sometimes but kabam 'evaluation' team don't know what they're talking about half the time. Like adam warlock they thought it was okay for him to get stunned in his stasis pod which is absolutely moronic. And his taunt should be passive otherwise he can't do shrug off champs or nodes like tenacity and mighty charge etc.
I mean it's all debatable but if 1 from the dozen or more that have gone through the evaluations is all we're talking about, then I think they're doing fine.

Again, Kabam evaluates champs off what they're seeing big picture wise where we tend to only evaluate what affects our own accounts and we want benefits us more than the game.
It's not just him tho, they botched cassie lang and other champ rebalancing. All Kabam have to do is listen a bit to the community and implement changes when there is widespread agreement for a small change that would make a champ better such as described above for adam warlock or 'un-nerf' a champ when they rebalance too far in the other direction. It's frustrating because Kabam are performing well half of the time but the other half they could avoid these screw ups by just taking a bit more care. If I had to guess, clearly some employees really love this game and take great care when implementing these balance changes, but a few of them just aren't bothered and charge ahead screwing up a perfectly good champ or not taking the opportunity to please 95% of the playerbase and slightly buff champs instead of just declaring they're fine.
I think the fundamental difference with this perspective is the rebalancing program isn't specifically geared towards making people happy. It's about applying the current model they're using to the data they gather and adjusting accordingly. That's not to say that people aren't onto something at times. It just means it's not about making Champs more popular.

I don't really understand this. Could you explain it in a bit more detail? Like if the model uses a metric such as 'usage in war across all tiers' or something to help determine champ worth during the first few months of their release then that's clearly going to be skewed as people will bring him/her in just to see how they perform, particularly in offseason as new champs are exciting. Apologies for me keep going back to the adam warlock example, but when I first pulled him I took him into aq, aw adn questing just to play around with him as I thought he was fun. I quickly learned he had a few big flaws such as being stun-able in his pod but continued to force him into my bg drafts just to see what he could do and test his limits. Turns out he has too many bad matchups and I went from using him all the time and wanting to r5 him, to barely using him at all after a few months of pulling him. This then goes for a lot of champions, where the model kabam uses is probably innately flawed if it takes into account usage in any gamemode or even win percentages. I apologise if my argument was not articulated that well as I kinda just typed this while these thoughts were jumbled around in my head

but TLDR: I think the model they use is innately flawed and thus Kabam should switch to polling/discussing with the general community or asking the content creators for their feedback and opinions. Both of these options are completely free and the second one I think would definitely be far more accurate than their current system, and at the same time wouldn't produce OP champs.