Buffs
**Long post....TLDR at bottom**
So recently Kabam said that buffs are more likely to be catered towards newer players. That's why mid to end game level players might not see much value in those buffs......Fair enough
But my doubt is that a new player remains new for a period of about 4 to 6 months.
In about 1 month time a moderately active new player starts playing almost exclusively with 4* champs & starts to aim at obtaining his initial 5* champ.
In about 3-4 months time he's uncollected.....sometimes even sooner
A Cavalier in nearly 6-8 months
And with current state may be Thronebreaker in a year
Out of that first year, he won't be using those "new player specific champs" for most of the year i.e. after completing Act 5
In initial couple months....the player won't care about the champion kits, but only about which champs hits hard & end fights quickly ...which is usually the highest rarity (star level) champs they have irrespective of who that champ is.
So out of these initial 12 months.... it's probably just about 2-4 months where these "new player specific buffs" can be considered meaningful enough to fulfil their intended purpose of serving new players..... basically the time they are going through acts 4 & 5.
And as we are repeatedly told, Kabam invests a lot of time & resources in carefully designing these buffed kits.
Is that investment just for such a short period in an average player's time with the game justifiable ??
When Gamora's buff was deemed underwhelming, we were told that it is for newer players....same with Deadpool XF & now with Jane Foster
As far as I know & from my personal experience,
- a newer player won't be using heavies so frequently to refresh buffs
- a newer player is more likely to need an easy to play evade counter compared to a miss counter
- a newer player won't do all the walking stuff with DPXF to gain his charges
- a newer player won't know how to effectively use Jane Foster to her max potential in some niches buff heavy scenarios
My point is that Kabam say that champ buff is catered towards newer players but the champion's ability kit & optimum rotation says otherwise
And finally.... we've had great buffs in past that can serve older players just as effectively as newer players
Now I don't want all buffs to be Red Magneto or Kingpin level buffs, but what's the harm in consistently giving us White Magneto type buffs, or buffs like Angela, RedHulk, Venom, Bishop, King Groot, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Terrax, Gambit, Joe Fixit, Hood, & some others that have been just as meaningful for experienced players as they might be for newer players
None of these buffs were too OP to shake the balance, or too mediocre that make the community at larges feel disappointed.
We have seen that they can maintain a good balance when they want to....so why not now, specially when we have moved from 4 buffs a month to barely 1 buff & that too with some break months in between.
The buff program has either lost it's direction or has been made to loose it's direction due to some obvious but not so obvious reasons.......and we as a community expect better from Kabam
TLDR :
1. Buffs catered to new players can only serve them for a few (2-4) months after which those champs become worthless as the player gains experience
2. Buffs are said to be catered to new players but the complexities of champion kits, rotations & the problems that the champion is supposed to solve sometimes don't support that claim.
3. We have had many well balanced buffs where the champion hasn't turned out to be Magneto or Kingpin, but hasn't been left as Psycho Man, Nova or Jane Foster either.
4. If we could get those balanced & meaningful buffs in the past that can serve players across different levels of the game, there is no reason for that not to be the norm anymore.
