Absorbing Man Balance

MaxtheSilentMaxtheSilent Member Posts: 831 ★★★★
edited February 2023 in General Discussion
I was fortunate enough to get AM from the new featured 6* crystal and after playing with him I have some feedback for the balance team. First, his play style requires a decent amount of skill to maximize outside of ideal match ups. For this reason alone I think he’s balanced on offense. People who invest in mastering his light intercept will get a lot out of him outside of buff heavy or immunity triggering fights. But most players won’t put in that investment and so I see little risk to overall balance in terms of attack outside of his target match ups.

Now I understand there are concerns about his balance on defense. I’m not objective , I have him and don’t want a nerf, but I get the concerns. I’m wondering if you couldn’t achieve balance by just reducing the cooldown where you can take him out of his form by heavy countering a special attack. If that was reduced from 20 seconds, even by half, I doubt people who have him would feel like their investment was wasted. More importantly it would give people on offense a means of countering him more reliably but not guaranteed. It takes skill to heavy counter but it’s doable. I don’t think reducing that cooldown ruins his defensive value but it does create a solution for people fighting him.

In conclusion AM is a great champ that takes a lot of work to master. His required skill outside of ideal matchups makes him balanced offensively and I think a fair compromise regarding defensive balance would be to reduce his cooldown for getting knocked out of form by heavy countering special attacks.

Or I’d personally be cool leaving him as is :) . I’d love to hear people’s thoughts.

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Comments

  • AmaadAkiraAmaadAkira Member Posts: 390 ★★★
    edited February 2023
    He is honestly fine on offence. He only excels stupidly against like 3 champs and a unique combination of nodes. So just like Galan, nimrod, HT, even long shot.

    Reducing his cooldown to knock him out of his forms is all that's really necessary, and maybe a slight bit on his regen (coupled with his insanely high physical and energy resist, it makes his regen even more overpowered).
  • RiderofHellRiderofHell Member Posts: 4,653 ★★★★★
    edited February 2023
    Pikolu said:

    All I want kabam to do if they nerf him in 5 months is give rank down tickets that we can use, even if it is a small nerf, that small nerf might be a make or break point for some people.

    We'll know in April what he's faith is lol
  • UnknownUnknown
    This content has been removed.
  • WorknprogressWorknprogress Member Posts: 7,233 ★★★★★
    Almog233 said:

    Please make him in a way that medium intercepts will work as well basic intercepts are really hard to get and u can't get absorbing man's full potential:(

    He was made to have a high skill cap very much intentionally. That's one of the things that actually makes him balanced unlike someone like Herc that has multiple cheats built into his kit so that even the worst players can look like they know what they're doing with him.
  • HenriqueSCCPHenriqueSCCP Member Posts: 420 ★★★
    FunnyDude said:

    I like the utilities of AM, but no matter you admit or not, AM is totally broken, just look at these numbers:
    - 20250 critical rating
    - 9000 physical/energy resistance
    - 9000 critical rating
    - 300% critical damage

    These numbers are just ridicules, they are not just slightly higher, but an order of magnitude higher than other champions, they should be seriously tuned.
    I don't even know how he can be released with these numbers.

    I agree and also he regenerates a lot. The gameplay is only difficult for beginner players, for more trained players, intercepting the opponent with a medium or light attack is already easy.
    When talking about nerfs, many crybabys already appear, I'm from the time of the Scarlet Witch nerf, I had it, I did practically everything with her, she broke the game. And when Kabam announced the nerf, there was no shortage of complaints and crying. I agreed with the nerf.
  • UnknownUnknown
    This content has been removed.
  • SquirrelguySquirrelguy Member Posts: 2,653 ★★★★★
    Worknprogress said:

    Almog233 said:

    Please make him in a way that medium intercepts will work as well basic intercepts are really hard to get and u can't get absorbing man's full potential:(

    He was made to have a high skill cap very much intentionally. That's one of the things that actually makes him balanced unlike someone like Herc that has multiple cheats built into his kit so that even the worst players can look like they know what they're doing with him.
    I know I’m probably gonna get some hate, but I feel like Herc could’ve been ever so slightly tuned down with little things like changing his heavy-charge gaining mechanism to make the player have to intercept with a heavy and not be able to parry stun and time the second hit for after.

    Little things like that could have given him a similar ceiling but made the damage slightly more difficult to access. But hey, it’s mot the end of the world that they left him how he is. Still love his overall design.
  • MaxtheSilentMaxtheSilent Member Posts: 831 ★★★★
    Catmanndo said:

    My R4 sig 180 is getting killed by most with 100% health in bgs so I don’t see why you’d need to make him easier. Players panic when they’re facing a new champ they don’t understand or have limited counters, I’ve heard similar arguments with hulkling and Peni.


    After some more time with him and fighting against him I agree he’s not as difficult on defense as I originally thought.
  • BocksaroxBocksarox Member Posts: 329 ★★★
    MaxtheSilent said:

    I’m wondering if you couldn’t achieve balance by just reducing the cooldown where you can take him out of his form by heavy countering a special attack. If that was reduced from 20 seconds, even by half, I doubt people who have him would feel like their investment was wasted.

    I'm curious of the design intention behind the cooldown. 20 seconds does feel like a long time, and it's not as if attackers are frequently being heavy countered by the defense. I don't have an Abs Man, so I'm uncertain if the cooldown has any effect as an attacker.

    If it doesn't, the 20 second cooldown feels a bit arbitrary, and I'd probably feel like the cooldown should be done away with all together. Abs Man rewards for skilled play. In the same way, I think the same benefit should be given to an attacker against a defending Abs if they are consistently able to heavy counter his specials. A heavy counter isn't the most difficult maneuver to pull off, but it could be quite punishing if it's screwed up.

    To reiterate, as I brace for the disagrees, I don't have an Abs Man and I am in no position to question designers that know far more about this game than I do. My intention is not to call for a nerf, but to understand the design behind this character a bit better. I do think he should be left alone offensively.
  • AxewAxew Member Posts: 620 ★★★★
    No offensive nerf tho plz :)
  • HenriqueSCCPHenriqueSCCP Member Posts: 420 ★★★
    Axew said:

    No offensive nerf tho plz :)

    In defense he deserves to have a nerf, he already has absurd physical resistances or energy and with the doubling, an absurd regeneration, he is a champion that has few counters.
  • WorknprogressWorknprogress Member Posts: 7,233 ★★★★★
    HenriqueSCCP said:

    Axew said:

    No offensive nerf tho plz :)

    In defense he deserves to have a nerf, he already has absurd physical resistances or energy and with the doubling, an absurd regeneration, he is a champion that has few counters.
    He's fine on defense as well. You can shut off his modes by heavy countering alternating specials and he has no heal reversal protection so heavy debuff champs with despair or reversal champs either turn of or kill him with his regen.
  • SpiderclawsSpiderclaws Member Posts: 15 ★
    Worknprogress said:

    HenriqueSCCP said:

    Axew said:

    No offensive nerf tho plz :)

    In defense he deserves to have a nerf, he already has absurd physical resistances or energy and with the doubling, an absurd regeneration, he is a champion that has few counters.
    He's fine on defense as well. You can shut off his modes by heavy countering alternating specials and he has no heal reversal protection so heavy debuff champs with despair or reversal champs either turn of or kill him with his regen.
    As most players run MD, if you heavy counter his specials in most competitive content (without making a mistake), you're most likely sending him directly to another special because of your dex buff. Then there's a 20 second cooldown. Inside 20 seconds, he can easily throw 3-4 specials depending on MD.
  • GreekhitGreekhit Member Posts: 2,820 ★★★★★
    Spiderclaws said:

    Worknprogress said:

    HenriqueSCCP said:

    Axew said:

    No offensive nerf tho plz :)

    In defense he deserves to have a nerf, he already has absurd physical resistances or energy and with the doubling, an absurd regeneration, he is a champion that has few counters.
    He's fine on defense as well. You can shut off his modes by heavy countering alternating specials and he has no heal reversal protection so heavy debuff champs with despair or reversal champs either turn of or kill him with his regen.
    As most players run MD, if you heavy counter his specials in most competitive content (without making a mistake), you're most likely sending him directly to another special because of your dex buff. Then there's a 20 second cooldown. Inside 20 seconds, he can easily throw 3-4 specials depending on MD.
    The 20 second cooldown should be lowered or eliminated at all.
    With maxed mystic dispersion he is busted on defence.
    At AW he isn’t a problem since you can bring one of the few champs that counter him, but since BGs exist and you might won’t have on deck, and even worse even if you have a counter you need to be lucky to get it drafted, AM needs rebalance.
    The problem is the 20 second timer, anything else on him is alright.
  • WorknprogressWorknprogress Member Posts: 7,233 ★★★★★
    edited March 2023
    Spiderclaws said:

    Worknprogress said:

    HenriqueSCCP said:

    Axew said:

    No offensive nerf tho plz :)

    In defense he deserves to have a nerf, he already has absurd physical resistances or energy and with the doubling, an absurd regeneration, he is a champion that has few counters.
    He's fine on defense as well. You can shut off his modes by heavy countering alternating specials and he has no heal reversal protection so heavy debuff champs with despair or reversal champs either turn of or kill him with his regen.
    As most players run MD, if you heavy counter his specials in most competitive content (without making a mistake), you're most likely sending him directly to another special because of your dex buff. Then there's a 20 second cooldown. Inside 20 seconds, he can easily throw 3-4 specials depending on MD.
    And the like I said, debuff or reversal champs either shut down or kill him with his own regen...
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