**Mastery Loadouts**
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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.
Some patterns I’ve noticed recently in game.
TP33
Posts: 1,593 ★★★★
So recently with champion addition and changes within game ive noticed some patterns emerging.
1. Quality of champions added
So for the past few months we’ve had a lot of great champions added, from the release of Shang Chi we’ve had Kitty Pryde, Hercules, Spidey 2099 and Knull all added who are all arguably the best champions of 2021 and maybe of their respective classes. Howveee each month has followed a pretty similar pattern. One great “headline” champion and then one less good but still viable champion. Look at November. Icaris was added and hyped up as a huge damage cosmic god, with sersi being a sort of afterthought. Sersi is a perfectly good champion herself as well, but didn’t receive the hype of icaris. Same with knull and anti-venom, Hercules and America Chavez and Kitty Pryde and Nimrod. Anti venom and Nimrod are both pretty good themselves, but overshadowed by the other champions released that month.
2. More mutants
A more well known pattern but kabam can’t stop adding mutants. However it’s not just the addition of mutants but the buffing of them. Both magnetos, Collosus, Gambit, Bishop and (kind of) Cable all have received pretty substantial buffs especially with the addition of Apocalypse. Personally I’m still waiting on another apocalypse like champion to be added but for other classes (Odin, Mr Fantastic and War Machine can’t even compare to him unfortunately, what they’re missing is specific synergies with other members of their class allowing them to have more support in the team)
3. Cav EQ boss nodes
What do Sauron, Kitty Pryde, Nimrod, America Chavez, Knull, Peni Parker and Ikaris have in common? Hard to dodge specials that during their months events cav EQ nodes and such all exploited. The worst I can remember is Kitty Pryde, when nobody knew how to dex her specials they put prowess nodes and block pen nodes on her, pretty harsh. This is a pattern I don’t really like, it tries to force players to use items in order to learn how to dex specials. I would much rather if kabam add flashy specials they at least give players a place to practise dexing them instead of just dying and reviving.
4. Apocalypse “clones”
War Machine and Odins pre-fights both trying to mimic the effects of Apocalypse. I think Odin got it pretty right, I love running him with Angela and Silver Surfer just to speed up their ramp ups, however neither champions have really been able to capture what apocalypse did. Odins only really great synergy is with hela and whilst she is now pretty good, it’s nothing compared to changes made to Cable, Psylock and Gambit, where he was able to almost completely change their abilities and playstyle. I’d still really love a skill equivalent to apocalypse.
1. Quality of champions added
So for the past few months we’ve had a lot of great champions added, from the release of Shang Chi we’ve had Kitty Pryde, Hercules, Spidey 2099 and Knull all added who are all arguably the best champions of 2021 and maybe of their respective classes. Howveee each month has followed a pretty similar pattern. One great “headline” champion and then one less good but still viable champion. Look at November. Icaris was added and hyped up as a huge damage cosmic god, with sersi being a sort of afterthought. Sersi is a perfectly good champion herself as well, but didn’t receive the hype of icaris. Same with knull and anti-venom, Hercules and America Chavez and Kitty Pryde and Nimrod. Anti venom and Nimrod are both pretty good themselves, but overshadowed by the other champions released that month.
2. More mutants
A more well known pattern but kabam can’t stop adding mutants. However it’s not just the addition of mutants but the buffing of them. Both magnetos, Collosus, Gambit, Bishop and (kind of) Cable all have received pretty substantial buffs especially with the addition of Apocalypse. Personally I’m still waiting on another apocalypse like champion to be added but for other classes (Odin, Mr Fantastic and War Machine can’t even compare to him unfortunately, what they’re missing is specific synergies with other members of their class allowing them to have more support in the team)
3. Cav EQ boss nodes
What do Sauron, Kitty Pryde, Nimrod, America Chavez, Knull, Peni Parker and Ikaris have in common? Hard to dodge specials that during their months events cav EQ nodes and such all exploited. The worst I can remember is Kitty Pryde, when nobody knew how to dex her specials they put prowess nodes and block pen nodes on her, pretty harsh. This is a pattern I don’t really like, it tries to force players to use items in order to learn how to dex specials. I would much rather if kabam add flashy specials they at least give players a place to practise dexing them instead of just dying and reviving.
4. Apocalypse “clones”
War Machine and Odins pre-fights both trying to mimic the effects of Apocalypse. I think Odin got it pretty right, I love running him with Angela and Silver Surfer just to speed up their ramp ups, however neither champions have really been able to capture what apocalypse did. Odins only really great synergy is with hela and whilst she is now pretty good, it’s nothing compared to changes made to Cable, Psylock and Gambit, where he was able to almost completely change their abilities and playstyle. I’d still really love a skill equivalent to apocalypse.
10
Comments
To your first point, Kabam has very limited say in which champs the community hypes up. I don’t understand what the issue is with getting two good champions each month. Seems like a good thing to me?
The Mutant class has, in total, 39 champions. This includes all the Pools and Weapon X, the four limited availability trophy champs (so 35 champions if we remove them). Including trophies, it is the second largest class in the game behind Cosmic which has 42, which only has one trophy champion (Thanos) to bolster its ranks. The other classes have, in total: Science 34, Skill 35, Tech 33, and Mystic 33. Tech has Kang as a trophy champ, Mystic has Unstoppable Colossus and Scarlet Witch (Sigil). In terms of total numbers of champions, mutant is very much in line with the bulk of the game.
In terms of buffs (I use buff to say that the champion’s kit was revisited. I know opinions on the results vary), only six mutant champions have received a buff. Bishop, Colossus, Magneto, Magneto (HoX), Old Man Logan, and Gambit. Science has received seven buffs, Tech has received eight, Cosmic has received eight, Mystic has received four, and skill has received ELEVEN. Mutant has the second lowest buff rate, beating out only the Mystic class (please send love to Iron Fist, make him better than his show).
I know you included synergies in your count of buffed champions, but I don’t consider those buffs. If it doesn’t exist on the champion at base, if I couldn’t bring that champion into a Summer of Pain type event and have access to that piece of their kit, then it is not a buff to the champion. Additionally, team-building is a big part of the Mutant class’s identity. They are meant to play off of each other for maximum effectiveness, that’s how they are in the source material. X-Men, Brotherhood, Horsemen, the Mutants are always in some kind of team or group or recreational sports league. It’s what they do.
Onto the Cav EQ boss nodes: yes, they are a challenge. They are supposed to be, as it is the highest available difficulty of EQ. If you would like to practice against them without those nodes, there are lower levels of EQ that you can go into first to practice. I remember when Uncollected difficulty was first released, I would always do the lower difficulty first to practice against the new champions before jumping into the higher difficulty. There is nothing stopping you from doing the same.
Finally, the idea that champions like Odin and War Machine are meant to be Apocalypse “clones.” Put simply, no they are not. They are their own champions fulfilling their own purpose in the game. As I mentioned above, the Mutant class is all about the meta-game of team-building. And so Apocalypse plays into and rewards intelligent team building.
The other classes don’t have that aspect to the same extent, and so the support champions in their classes aren’t aimed at the same purpose. Nor should they be. I don’t want to have a bunch of Asgardians who are awful unless Odin is on the team. I don’t want all of my S.H.I.E.L.D. affiliated champs to be worthless without Nick Fury. You get where I’m going with this at this point.
I’ve gone on way too long with this.
TL;DR - good champs are good, you’re numerically wrong about mutants, practice in a lower difficulty EQ, not every champ needs to be or should be Apoc.
I am aware of the changes made to Gambit. But what changes have they experienced Cable an Psylock??
none of these are bad things, just stuff that’s going on for a while