**WINTER OF WOE - BONUS OBJECTIVE POINT**
As previously announced, the team will be distributing an additional point toward milestones to anyone who completed the Absorbing Man fight in the first step of the Winter of Woe.
This point will be distributed at a later time as it requires the team to pull and analyze data.
The timeline has not been set, but work has started.
There is currently an issue where some Alliances are are unable to find a match in Alliance Wars, or are receiving Byes without getting the benefits of the Win. We will be adjusting the Season Points of the Alliances that are affected within the coming weeks, and will be working to compensate them for their missed Per War rewards as well.

Additionally, we are working to address an issue where new Members of an Alliance are unable to place Defenders for the next War after joining. We are working to address this, but it will require a future update.

The issue with the Antman Buff

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.

Comments

  • BeeweeBeewee Posts: 531 ★★★★
    I don’t know who the buff is targeted at. He’s not good enough for any competitive gameplay and he’s too complicated for newer players.
  • AleorAleor Posts: 3,045 ★★★★★
    > because i know a lot of hard work was put into this design

    didn't they just nerf his synergies and put those into champ's basic kit?
  • SquammoSquammo Posts: 397 ★★★
    Do we know yet if his glancing is working properly?
  • psp742psp742 Posts: 2,252 ★★★★
    If and when Antman is actually performing correctly as per his description (unless otherwise appended or change by kabam).. I'd be able to say whether he is good or not. I wish he was more than this..
    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.
  • SquammoSquammo Posts: 397 ★★★
    edited September 2022

    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.

    So, for the record, myself and many other endgame players firmly believe Ant-Man's buff was incredible. I personally believe it's far and away the best of this year, and rivals other amazing buffs like those of Nebula and Hood.

    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.
    Nice write up. I just wish we could pause his other debuffs as well. Do you know if there has been something official yet regarding the glancing?
  • psp742psp742 Posts: 2,252 ★★★★
    Is there any update from kabam when the glancing will fixed? With it he might be even better..
  • Texas_11Texas_11 Posts: 2,638 ★★★★★
    psp742 said:

    Is there any update from kabam when the glancing will fixed? With it he might be even better..

    It's working for me on blocked hits now.
  • Amadeo01Amadeo01 Posts: 212 ★★★
    Texas_11 said:

    psp742 said:

    Is there any update from kabam when the glancing will fixed? With it he might be even better..

    It's working for me on blocked hits now.
    Just tested and it's not working for me still.
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