The issue with the Antman Buff
Cranky_Trump
Member Posts: 263 ★
I hope this doesn't come off as whiny, because i know a lot of hard work was put into this design, but I feel like you guys missed the mark on the buff. Now, naturally this applies to players with sizeable rosters, not people who Antman is one of their only 5 stars or something, because in that case he's a hell of a lot better.
You guys took Antman from a champ that was at the bottom of the usable bell curve alone (aka God-awful) and pretty decent and fun when properly synergized, to a champ that now sits in the mediocre middle in both categories. There is really no reason to use Antman over another champ unless you're a huge fan of the character. What the established players are really looking for in any champ is something to make them stand out. Whether it's base kit, awakened ability, synergy, or niche fight node counter, we want a reason for a champ to be great, otherwise they'll continue collecting dust.
The Antman big made him friendly for those who have no alternatives- basically taking him to average from bucket of suck territory. For those who have alternatives and were looking for a reason to get excited about him, we were sorely disappointed. The synergies that made him able to be great were changed, and the lack of constant glancing makes him an easier defender.
TL;DR: Kabam, for future buffs, please give us something to be excited about with a champ, because with this guy, all I see is someone taking a spot on the middle of the pack.
You guys took Antman from a champ that was at the bottom of the usable bell curve alone (aka God-awful) and pretty decent and fun when properly synergized, to a champ that now sits in the mediocre middle in both categories. There is really no reason to use Antman over another champ unless you're a huge fan of the character. What the established players are really looking for in any champ is something to make them stand out. Whether it's base kit, awakened ability, synergy, or niche fight node counter, we want a reason for a champ to be great, otherwise they'll continue collecting dust.
The Antman big made him friendly for those who have no alternatives- basically taking him to average from bucket of suck territory. For those who have alternatives and were looking for a reason to get excited about him, we were sorely disappointed. The synergies that made him able to be great were changed, and the lack of constant glancing makes him an easier defender.
TL;DR: Kabam, for future buffs, please give us something to be excited about with a champ, because with this guy, all I see is someone taking a spot on the middle of the pack.
17
Comments
That alone makes him unique and worth ranking for the niche fights you’ve asked for. Plus with the other buff immune champs not being worth that much in war (Red Guardian is a resounding ok, Titania isn’t out yet and Spidey is often banned), Ant Man’s value is much higher than you give him credit for.
There was 0 reason to use or rank Ant Man pre buff unless you wanted to make a YouTube video with an unrealistic synergy team and massive ramp up, now he’s going to be a staple AW attacker
Path 7? Spite gone. EMP Mod? Ant Man is buff immune. Power snack? Buffet? No worries. Path 9 with a tricky mystic defender? No need to stress through with Kingpin, Ant Man has immunities to one of each section. Any tricky mystic defender? No need to worry about MD.
We all know how incredible defiance was as an attack tactic, trust me - ant man is going to be great. Even more so when his bugs are fixed and he can glance on block and apply fatigues (assuming Karate Mike is correct and that’s a bug).
For a Beginner player - with a small roster, you don't have to hope anymore to open a crystal and get Ghost, Wasp, Cap Sam Wilson. You get an Antman, he is useful right away. If you need someone poison immune, he's another option. If you need someone shock immune, he is another option.
For an intermediate player - adds to the number of buff immune champions to pull with this ability that you can use. Now you don't have a <1% chance of getting a buff immune champion, now it is more like 1.2%.
For an endgame player - combination of abilities (buff immune, immunities, power sting, miss countering, etc) allows him to be brought in for niche fights. Sure, he's probably not the best at any one of those things, but he will work for those niche fights that require poison/shock/buff immunity and power sting to do damage.
Guess who is on the attack tactic for next time the defence tactic changes?
Baiting heavies is going to quickly add up that block damage
Playstyle is definitely not newbie friendly
And the kit is most probably not for experienced players except the immunities
didn't they just nerf his synergies and put those into champ's basic kit?
Let's break down some of the value he brings to an endgame roster, shall we?
For general questing/war/AQ, the largest thing to mention is immediately his buff immunity. Buff immunity in and of itself is one of the most useful abilities in the game, allowing a champ to deal with countless pain-point nodes and mechanics; EMP Modification, for example. Additionally, he has dual immunity to poison and shock; an incredibly rare combination that I'm not sure existed in the game up to this point. He also has incredibly powerful, theoretically endless damage from an alternate source (poison), dealing 3k per tick at a 6 star r3 level (tested myself, no suis or synergies). The only thing AM has to do to keep that damage up is to dash back, intercept, or hit the opponent while they're recovering from a heavy... That's absolutely incredible.
I can already see the responses talking about the ramp-up he needs to get to that point, but I'd remind you of one thing; Ant-Man's glancing is currently bugged. Ant-Man should be able to glance attacks on his block when Unsteady is on the opponent, allowing for the extremely easy ramp of 12 fatigues from just a single l1 (4 from the special itself, 8 from taking 8 blocked hits within 15 seconds that will do very little damage). Thus, he should only need 3 bars of power in total to access some frankly incredible damage.
More than anything, I think Ant-Man is going to be invaluable in BGs. Other buff immune champs like S2099 and RG are mediocre at best because of their ramp-up time, while Ant-Man needs 3 bars worth of power to absolutely melt the opponent. He'll be great for challenging placements like Man-Thing, Maw, Mojo, Sasquatch, Doom, etc that would regularly cause trouble based on their nullify abilities, and high MD being a pain in general. For me, I'm a Negs main as you might be able to guess by my pfp. I believe the relevance of Ant-Man to my roster is as a back-up: by having Ant-Man in my BGs deck, I am now free to use Negs as a nuke while using Ant-Man for the above mentioned mystic matchups I'd normally need to save Negs for. Should my r4 Negs get banned, I now have a substitute.
Ant-Man's buff is incredible because of the unique utility, easy to access big damage, and flexibility he brings to both endgame and progressing rosters. He takes some practice to get used to and thus rewards players that put time and effort in to learn and master his kit. Ant-Man is one of the greatest successes the buff program has ever seen, putting out a champion that is relevant to roster sizes of all kinds, yet not game breaking in the least. He is the epitome of a well balanced, effective champ; and should one not agree, that disagreement is not at the fault of him or his designers.
Is he much improved? Yes, shock and poison immunity.. immune to AAR and power drain or ability to siphon opponents health or ability to track opponents even while in phase or invisible (female ant hormone tracking)... ability to shrink (10sec at sig200) 80% chance for opponents to miss.