Synergies - Were They Implemented Correctly?

V1PER1987

So this post is meant to just be an interesting discussion, not an actual suggestion to change the synergy system.

I have been thinking about how the synergy bonuses were added in game. It seems alright but I was thinking, shouldn’t the bonus come from who you’re actually fighting and not who is in the team? For example don’t you think Colossus should gain a crit bonus when fighting Jugg or Cyclops gains more attack when fighting Magneto? I know how synergies work now, it allows for a lot of different teams and bonuses so it was a good addition. But do you think certain matchups would make sense to give certain bonuses? For example Cyclops would fight a lot harder against Magneto due to their relationship/history than say Captain Marvel. It would probably be too complicated to implement but what do you guys think?

Brew_Swayne

I had similar thoughts when I first started playing, but I compared it more to class bonus/penalty rather than synergy.

For example, one of my first impressions was that Hulkbuster could probably have some sort of bonus applied when fighting Hulk since the suit was created specifically to fight Hulk.

But after playing a relatively short time, I realized that simply isn't how the game is designed. It isn't built to perfectly mimic the comics, and imo, it shouldn't be.

ESF

First of all: Love this topic.

Like most infrastructure things in the game, I think about Synergies a lot. They're additive, so technically even if they aren't awesome, they really can't be bad, you know? For example: Take Iron Man (IW)'s synergy with the various StarkTech characters where they recover from Armor Break a percentage faster. Is that a "great" synergy? Probably not -- it's a bit lackluster. But can it truly be called "bad:? Probably not, because it is added where there was nothing.

But at the same time, I do think Synergies, as a collective, fail to hit the mark in one basic way: They miss too many opportunities to emphasize the lore of characters, the very essence of why people care deeply about these characters in the first place.

For instance: A younger generation is truly enthused about Marvel's properties due to the Cinematic Universe, the movies. Totally fine. Awesome. So don't shy away from that. Emphasize it. The characters who come straight from that aspect of Marvel should have their own #Cinematic hashtag and have unique and interesting synergies with each other...and to me, no others.

So that would mean characters like Vision (AOU), BPCW/Killmonger, Cap (IW) and Iron Man (IW), Thor/Hulk/Hela and Korg from Ragnarok, Proxima/Corvus, Ant-Man/Yellowjacket/Wasp/Ghost, etc., who were clearly based off designs from the movies, should be emphasized for greater interactivity with each other.

To me, Killmonger shouldn't have synergies with, say...Void. That doesn't mean the synergy isn't cool. It just means that if we really focus on what makes certain iterations important to fans, then we could really see more synergies that enhance team building.

That is what I mean when I say that the synergies miss too many obvious opportunities for fans of the history of these characters, new and old, to really connect with what they could be.

For example, to me, these synergies could exist and would honestly serve to enhance not just the game itself, but the lore of the characters and encourage team-building that "makes sense" AND allow for expansion with other characters, in some cases, that come down the line:

1. Original X-Men: Cyclops, Phoenix, Beast, Archangel, Iceman
2. All-New, All-Different X-Men: Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus
3. Silver/Platinum Age X-Men: Rogue, Gambit, Bishop
4. Avengers Founders: OG Iron Man, OG Thor, Hulk (Could be joined by Hank Pym or an old-school Janet Van Dyne)
5. Cap's Kooky Quartet: OG Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye (Could be joined by Quicksilver)
6. Golden/Silver Age Avengers: OG Vision, Black Panther, Black Widow, OG Ms. Marvel
7. Modern Age Avengers: Captain Marvel, Sentry, Jane Foster, Miles Morales, Kamala Khan
8. Golden Age Champions: Black Widow, Iceman, Archangel, Ghost Rider
9. Modern Champions: Kamala Khan, Miles Morales
10. Sinister Six: Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Green Goblin, Electro
See what I mean? So on and so forth.

If we did it this way, then we could truly have some coherence with synergies and they could really be used to enhance the longstanding mythology of the characters within their lore, be fun to create questing teams with that emphasize the bonds the characters have historically.

Now, someone is saying "But the Battlerealm has its own history! It's a separate thing!"

That's fine -- it doesn't mean that other synergies can't be created and exist.

It means that some synergies probably should exist, so lore and the canon of the source material is emphasized.

Werewrym

I think synergies are an important topic where we are at in the game currently. I do like this idea and think it would be interesting if different champions had different "reactions" when fighting different champs. Synergies are kind of a mess in the game currently. All the new champs get amazing synergies whereas some of our old favorites are still rocking the 5% armor... Just makes things really unbalanced in my opinion.

XxOriginalxX

Like what ESF said, synergies are interesting, especially when IMIW has a synergy with Civil Warrior, which makes...very little sense lol. But synergies against the champion you’re fighting, pros and cons, pros, any nemesis character becomes 6% easier, cons, Assuming this replaces actual synergies, Blade is Busted, Winter soldier stops winning, the such. Having both would be insane, r5 65 hulk vs LOL red hulk, where hulk is max sig and has nemesis synergies...yeah, cool idea with a few characters, like HulkBuster should be the counter to all three hulk characters (Just so he’s viable, can’t just be good against good ole green) definetly something id like to hear More like, oh these characters should have something about

shawnli87

I love this discussion. While I agree that a lot of the existing synergies in the game don’t make a lick of sense, I think the concept of team synergies do. If you’re fighting with a group of people, it follows that the dynamics of the group would influence your capabilities.

I’ve thought of the idea of opponent interactions as well. Seems like Kabam is starting to dable in such interactions, in a couple of different ways. One, for example, is the Void-Avengers synergy, which activates Fear of the Void against Avengers at the start of the fight. Another is Corvus’ Eliminate Avengers mission, which grants him extra glaive charges against Avengers once completed. I’d like to see more of these types of interactions, but possibly more automatic and less synergy dependent.

V1PER1987

Thank you all for your input.

@ESF I always enjoy reading your comments. I agree that synergies are just an additive bonus so I guess I shouldn’t scoff at them. It just got me thinking more about combat relationships and character interactions with one another. I also agree that the synergies should be based on the lore of the comics/MCU and tie things together but the synergies in game are so random. I mean stark Spidey and Blade? What? Sabretooth and Killmonger? These characters have never once interacted to my knowledge and so synergies seem bizarre. I can’t help but think this might confuse “casual” comic bookers even more instead of instilling actual relationships. I like some of the synergies you laid out too. It would make the game

@shawnli87 yes that is true. There are a couple interactions that are nice like the Void synergy which is cool. Maybe going forward they will be able to integrate it more.