Thoughts on ascension pool “buffs”

First of all grateful to Kabam for buffing these champions.

On to the champs, the choices were decent and certainly needed some improvement to be useful at more places in the contest.

buffs themselves aren’t too exciting ( just my opinion ) but hope they are the missing piece these champs needed, we will see…

Comments

Searmenis

Buffs are mediocre at best, as every buff has been after Sinister. The problem is, they use Ascension as an excuse to buff whoever, and we ended up with an ascension pool worse than the initial 7* one.

Absolutely dissapointing having a bunch of F-tier characters as our only options.

Childish_Almino

I highly disagree, it’s true the picks they chose aren’t all too interesting but some MIGHT spice things up. I wouldn’t change the champs they chose but rather make the buffs a bit more significant. Having ascendable Cull, Nico, Spider-Woman or Okoye would just push the powercreep that began with Serpent. Champs with good utility but somewhat lacking damage should thrive from this and we don’t even know how much the iso-burst will push these either. Perhaps champs like IDoom can cook with their damage during the burst now. We‘ll see.

DEMONYT98

True most of the champions they announced need a complete rework (in my opinion).

EdisonLaw

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930056#Comment_2930056

This. Imagine having to fight an ascended 7* R6 Serpent or Dark Phoenix

WednesdayLength

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930051#Comment_2930051

If you think thr jabari and vision aarkus buffs are mediocre then you need to reread what they do

ThePredator1001

I’m excited about the launch pool, hopefully it shakes up the meta and lets new champs shine.

I think the tune ups look good on paper. None of the champs needed a full rework, most of them just need little changes to make them competitive. We won’t know till we see them in game but if you remember when shuri was tuned up they only made small changes but she become one of the best techs. I’m hopeful most of the tune ups are great. But I wouldn’t be surprised if some are flops.

Searmenis

You got that wrong. I m not in favor of ascending the Serpens and the Spider-women, I understand the logic behind this whole 1st pool, but, there s a ton of under performing champions that are also very well known, and loved, the Thors, the Spider-men, the Steve Rogers, the Wolverines, the Captain Marvels, etc etc, buff these, not Gentle and Pyramid X and Sam Wilson, if you want to add ascended Wilson, do the original Falcon ffs. Some people may be excited because Doom IM is their favorite character, but most of the players want to play with a regular Stark!

ItsClobberinTime

They seem underwhelming and the sad part is some people appear to be so used to buffs being ass lately that they're setting the bar extremely low and calling them decent. Some of these buffs have potential but there isn't a single one that makes you go "wow that one's gonna be meta for sure". All they've done for most of the champs is increase damage and ramp up time, however, what I barely see in every buff is utility, what even is the point in increasing the damage if the pool of champs they can take is still limited? I know some of them got a few bits and pieces of utility but in my opinion it's just not enough regardless.

They're not as terrible and useless as Sabretooth's buff I'll give them that, but on paper they don't sound anything like the goated buffs we used to have a year or two ago with the likes of Sinister and Red Guardian who to this day are still extremely meta relevant.

HuskerCool

I’m not excited about 95% of the total ascension pool, regardless of the buffed champions

EdisonLaw

The point of a buff or a rework is not to make a useless champion the top of their class or next to the top 5 champs, it’s to finally make them usable.
For example, players used to call the Rhino buff mid, but look at him currently. Same with Super Skrull, Yondu, Dr Strange etc. Even with Red Guardian and Mr Sinister, the goal wasn’t to intentionally make them OP, but to make them actually good champions.

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930089#Comment_2930089

Super skrull still isnt good or usable

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930089#Comment_2930089

Nobody said anything about top of their class Red Skull is still a great buff and he's nowhere near top 5 in the tech class these days, they can make great buffs without making the champ top of their class. Where exactly are you going to use Iron Doom or Sam? They work for everything they already worked for previously and they're still not the best options for those particular matchups, neither are they good enough defenders to dethrone the usual suspects or be at the same level as them. You can't just slap a "more damage faster ramp" label in 2026 and call it a day cause that's exactly how you end up with something as mediocre as the Sabretooth buff, where is the utility? Every single champ they're buffing still needs more utility tailored around modern defenders to truly be relevant, and being happy that a champ is just "usable" but not good enough to land high enough in the current game meta is setting the bar pretty low.

As for the buffs you mentioned:

1. Rhino was called mid because of his damage which is still mid, he was never called mid on defense, stop taking things out of context lol

2. Neither Yondu not Strange were ever called mid, you made that one up

3. Super Skrull also wasn't called mid but guess what he is just "usable" like the rest of the champs that are getting buffed, and people barely use him in BGs not because he sucks but because he's simply just not good enough.

4. Red Guardian and Sinister are indeed good champs, so what's the issue with expecting other buffs to be on that same level or close? They did it with Cull so they're obviously fully capable, they just choose not to, God knows why.

Bulmkt

the only champ I like in the ascension pool is Zemo…

Usagicassidy

I just hate Storm Pyramid X so much… we could've gotten any number of cool Storms with killer designs and Kabam gives us this ugly and bizarre original character.

Not loving seeing her as one of the launch characters for ascension.

WednesdayLength

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930097#Comment_2930097

He's both of those things, just not top tier

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930123#Comment_2930123

WednesdayLength

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930098#Comment_2930098

In all fairness, no one uses skrull in bgs because most people picked yondu from the selector lmao. If he was in the basic pool I think he'd be used more

WednesdayLength

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930124#Comment_2930124

Has access to near permanent vigilance and or undermine, nuts damage once you get his rotation down, plus can be an annoying stall defender if you don't have enough buff control to cover it.

Idon't see the point in being hyperbolic and saying he's not good or usable when he's just niche

lucianxvs

i am very excited to ascend Infamous Ironman, he is very underrated in my opinion

he has shock and incinerate immunity, shock damage , power burn and power control, a bit of defensive value as well, easy access to heavy attacks (i beat a lot of Zolas in BG with him , let me know if u want to see a video about it) , he is a fantastic champion in my opinion

Herbal_Taxman

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930139#Comment_2930139

”defensive value” lol

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930125#Comment_2930125

I have both Yondu and Super Skrull, and even with the 40 deck changes he’s still not in mine. He is r4 and awakened mind you, but like I said he’s simply not good enough

lucianxvs

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930142#Comment_2930142

well, he has non-contact mediums, so you can't parry him easily, and his sp1 gives him the aura, so u cant knock him down, and the immunities and armor up help as well if u have a bad draft. he is not the hardest defender but not a complete lemon either

SirGamesBond

I dont like the pool, I dont mind it either.

The tuneups are fine too. Not exactly what we needed, but we got them atleast.

Looking forward to anyone? None, outside mojo. Not getting him anyway. It's all rng and rng is a ditch.

GilbertoJunior

Besides Destroyer and High Evo not getting changes im mostly Okay with It, theres nothing i can do besides waiting and Hope i can ascend some

Ercarret

I actually quite like the pool. It's a lot of champions that I kind of like but that aren't, at the same time, on my rank-up radar. Having them on a different track that doesn't "steal resources" from the champs that I do want to rank up normally feels very nice.

Then there are a few champs there that I do have ranked up, such as Howard the Duck, Adam Warlock and Baron Zemo. I'm very, very excited about being able to ascend them.

And then there are the buff, that I for the most part think looks fine. I immediately rank 4'd Jabari Panther after seeing her buff details, I think it looks amazing. It addresses a lot of my complaints about the champion and I'm very excited to see her in action. Then there are some champions that I'm really excited to see buffed, such as Korg and Sam Wilson, but will need to test myself to evaluate. Finally there are some champs that are more "eh, they're not my jam but the buff looks good" - your iDooms and Emma Frosts. I don't think their buffs look bad by any means - based on conversations I've had with fans of theirs, they seem to address some pain points just like the Jabari buff does for me - but they probably still won't end up in my deck. Just personal preference rather than any lack of quality.

All in all, everything looks pretty solid in my eyes. I can't wait until all of this kicks off next (right?) month.

Sachhyam257

My reservations are with the fact that these tune ups will be tuned around being 1 rank above in mind (ascended stats). So imo, don't expect any huge changes.

Soundwarp

calling it now, people are gunna be sleeping on storm pyramid x, meanwhile I see how she glances all skill special attacks and think that’s gunna be the key to her.

TotemCorruption

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930171#Comment_2930171

I mean, that's cool, but Karolina glances all special attacks from all classes.

It's not the mid-champ lovers' fault though. It's Kabam. They make broken champs and then try to shove these mid champs down our throats and gaslight us when we complain.

Go feed a dog steak every night and then try to get it to eat kibble. Only the dumb dogs will be fine with that.

WednesdayLength

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930144#Comment_2930144

Yeah but you also have all of the top options lmao. My point is that if he was in the basic then he would likely see more use as a left field defender option but as of now the only people that have him are those that spent a lot for black Friday

WednesdayLength

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930170#Comment_2930170

I mean the details alone make the champs seem a lot better than they are