This makes it appear the intent of the update program is to boost progressing accounts. Possible exception is DPX, who gains a good bit more bleed damage. Still…
Dr. Zola
The intent of the buff program is to make it so that it doesn’t physically hurt when one of these champions shows up in your crystals, they’ve said as much before. And I think they hit that mark here. If I didn’t already have these champs, I wouldn’t hate pulling them now. I don’t think my DPX is duped, so now I don’t dread the idea of awakening him. That’s a win in my book.
It hurts less, for sure, so I guess it’s mission *sort of* accomplished.
But if physical pain is the metric, there are a lot more painful pulls than either of these two champs. One is a fair synergy partner with Nick, and the other is at least mid-tier with average+ utility. I can think of a half dozen champs in each class that are more debilitating to pull.
I think the team may be so fearful they might produce another Magneto that every buff now feels tepid (possible exception is Gamora, who’s had as much work done on her as the Kardashians). Either that or they have reduced the resources that comprise the update team. Whatever it is it makes what used to be a heavily anticipated part of the game less exciting.
Dr. Zola
I don’t agree. The “new” 2022 buff update program has updated: Psycho Man, Gamora, Storm, Mordo, and now DPX and Yondu. With the very notable exception of Psycho Man (just a no good really bad messed up champ), and pending actual gameplay with the June buffs, I’d say the program is still humming along nicely.
Before the year end hiatus on the buff program, we saw Hawkeye, Joe Fix-It, Karnak, Nebula, Guillotine, Thor Rags, and Miles Morales. Guillotine is definitely the weakest link in there, in my opinion, but the rest of those are very solid and I’d argue comparable to the buffs we’ve seen this year.
I’m gonna keep being excited about buffs. There will certainly be duds mixed in (I’m still upset about how Guillotine came out), but overall it’s a good program.
I'm just failing to see what Yondu can do in the current meta. His kit hasn't changed with the exception of being able to steal some prowess. They showcase him as being able to be a good mutant counter now, but champs like Bishop can still eat him up. He didn't get an increase to his bleed damage, but just an increased chance to apply a bleed.
I feel like adding a True Strike buff to his kit would have made him much more valuable than simply increasing the timers on his abilities.
Being able to handle prowess is a big deal. However, it's still only a small number of matchups where that is critical but that number will grow moving forward. There are plenty of mutants where it just doesn't matter if they start stacking prowess because their specials are easily avoidable. They made him insignificantly better overall in general but much better against a few champs in particular (Apoc, Kitty, Havok, Storm, Bishop, Sauron, both Mags).
I disagree about him being better against Apoc, Bishop, and either Mags really. Apoc becomes bleed immune. Sure, you can add some armor breaks. Bishop deals direct damage whenever you bleed him. Mags has 90% bleed reduction.
I'm just failing to see what Yondu can do in the current meta. His kit hasn't changed with the exception of being able to steal some prowess. They showcase him as being able to be a good mutant counter now, but champs like Bishop can still eat him up. He didn't get an increase to his bleed damage, but just an increased chance to apply a bleed.
I feel like adding a True Strike buff to his kit would have made him much more valuable than simply increasing the timers on his abilities.
Being able to handle prowess is a big deal. However, it's still only a small number of matchups where that is critical but that number will grow moving forward. There are plenty of mutants where it just doesn't matter if they start stacking prowess because their specials are easily avoidable. They made him insignificantly better overall in general but much better against a few champs in particular (Apoc, Kitty, Havok, Storm, Bishop, Sauron, both Mags).
I disagree about him being better against Apoc, Bishop, and either Mags really. Apoc becomes bleed immune. Sure, you can add some armor breaks. Bishop deals direct damage whenever you bleed him. Mags has 90% bleed reduction.
If the bulk of Yondu’s damage comes from his bleeds, then you’ll have a point. But if he is able to do a lot of big yellow number damage off of his sp2 fury, then the minimized bleed damage won’t be that big of a deal.
Also, Bishop deals direct damage when he’s bleeding and he has prowess stacks. Tech attackers don’t grant him prowess on landed hits. Nimrod deals energy damage, which is why Bishop still gains prowess in that particular matchup, but Yondu doesn’t (at least on his basics and sp1). So Yondu may be able to safely apply those bleeds. Not sure yet, I’d have to test it out.
This makes it appear the intent of the update program is to boost progressing accounts. Possible exception is DPX, who gains a good bit more bleed damage. Still…
Dr. Zola
The intent of the buff program is to make it so that it doesn’t physically hurt when one of these champions shows up in your crystals, they’ve said as much before. And I think they hit that mark here. If I didn’t already have these champs, I wouldn’t hate pulling them now. I don’t think my DPX is duped, so now I don’t dread the idea of awakening him. That’s a win in my book.
It hurts less, for sure, so I guess it’s mission *sort of* accomplished.
But if physical pain is the metric, there are a lot more painful pulls than either of these two champs. One is a fair synergy partner with Nick, and the other is at least mid-tier with average+ utility. I can think of a half dozen champs in each class that are more debilitating to pull.
I think the team may be so fearful they might produce another Magneto that every buff now feels tepid (possible exception is Gamora, who’s had as much work done on her as the Kardashians). Either that or they have reduced the resources that comprise the update team. Whatever it is it makes what used to be a heavily anticipated part of the game less exciting.
Dr. Zola
I don’t agree. The “new” 2022 buff update program has updated: Psycho Man, Gamora, Storm, Mordo, and now DPX and Yondu. With the very notable exception of Psycho Man (just a no good really bad messed up champ), and pending actual gameplay with the June buffs, I’d say the program is still humming along nicely.
Before the year end hiatus on the buff program, we saw Hawkeye, Joe Fix-It, Karnak, Nebula, Guillotine, Thor Rags, and Miles Morales. Guillotine is definitely the weakest link in there, in my opinion, but the rest of those are very solid and I’d argue comparable to the buffs we’ve seen this year.
I’m gonna keep being excited about buffs. There will certainly be duds mixed in (I’m still upset about how Guillotine came out), but overall it’s a good program.
I wouldn't say comparable. Just buffs don't hit the same. Out of all the buffs we have had this year only storm actually matches up with the old program in my opinion. I'm still excited about buffs in the hopes we get something amazing like KP, or diablo but...
Just want to let people know that the Gamora buff was pretty good we got and it took some testing and time to get a fair judgement on the character. Just cause Yondu's buff doesn't appear to be God-tier doesn't mean it is a bad buff.
They even explained ahead of time that depending on what they're working on and how in-depth one of the buffs could be, the other buff would either be a tune-up or a moderate update and this seems to be more of the former, which is fine because if you asked a lot of people before this was announced, they would all say that and yondu could use a tune-up.
But of course because he's not being turned into a one hit KO God, somehow this is an unmitigated failure. It's ridiculous that the people argue that they want Buffs and tune-ups and then get mad when you get what you ask for.
Just want to let people know that the Gamora buff was pretty good we got and it took some testing and time to get a fair judgement on the character. Just cause Yondu's buff doesn't appear to be God-tier doesn't mean it is a bad buff.
It also can be a bad buff. If the buff doesn’t put a character into a viable R3+ candidate and very few rank them up; it doesn’t help the players and only hurts them as we now have to deal with a harder defender.
But this isn't all about you trying to find a viable Rank 3 candidate. This is also supposed to be about somebody who's pulling their very first five or six star tech champion and not being completely mad that they walked away with nothing viable for the foreseeable future.
Just want to let people know that the Gamora buff was pretty good we got and it took some testing and time to get a fair judgement on the character. Just cause Yondu's buff doesn't appear to be God-tier doesn't mean it is a bad buff.
It also can be a bad buff. If the buff doesn’t put a character into a viable R3+ candidate and very few rank them up; it doesn’t help the players and only hurts them as we now have to deal with a harder defender.
But this isn't all about you trying to find a viable Rank 3 candidate. This is also supposed to be about somebody who's pulling their very first five or six star tech champion and not being completely mad that they walked away with nothing viable for the foreseeable future.
You'd still prefer using top tier r5 5* over mediocre 6*, who doesn't bring anything unique. If you are not going to r3 a 6* champ, why would you take him to r2?
This makes it appear the intent of the update program is to boost progressing accounts. Possible exception is DPX, who gains a good bit more bleed damage. Still…
Dr. Zola
The intent of the buff program is to make it so that it doesn’t physically hurt when one of these champions shows up in your crystals, they’ve said as much before. And I think they hit that mark here. If I didn’t already have these champs, I wouldn’t hate pulling them now. I don’t think my DPX is duped, so now I don’t dread the idea of awakening him. That’s a win in my book.
It hurts less, for sure, so I guess it’s mission *sort of* accomplished.
But if physical pain is the metric, there are a lot more painful pulls than either of these two champs. One is a fair synergy partner with Nick, and the other is at least mid-tier with average+ utility. I can think of a half dozen champs in each class that are more debilitating to pull.
I think the team may be so fearful they might produce another Magneto that every buff now feels tepid (possible exception is Gamora, who’s had as much work done on her as the Kardashians). Either that or they have reduced the resources that comprise the update team. Whatever it is it makes what used to be a heavily anticipated part of the game less exciting.
Dr. Zola
I don't know if it's fear of creating a Magneto. They were pretty up front about wanting Magneto to be a very strong character in the game and correcting that. He was always meant to be an outlier in what to expect from the buff program. I just think that each charcater should have specific reasons to use them over other characters. in Yondu's case, it would be his prowess removal but I'm not picking him over any of the other champs who can do that.
Exactly. If you objectively look at what the program is supposed to do, it's supposed to bring everybody up but like their actual powers in comics: some are going to be Gods, since some are going to be really good and some are going to be above average.
Somebody else on this thread posted about potentially increasing the amount of tune-ups and as much as I would love for them to crank out a few more as quickly as possible, I also know that some people deserve a lot more than just that and they need that extra time and love to become something a lot better than what they are. I'm hoping one day it'll get there.
Just want to let people know that the Gamora buff was pretty good we got and it took some testing and time to get a fair judgement on the character. Just cause Yondu's buff doesn't appear to be God-tier doesn't mean it is a bad buff.
It also can be a bad buff. If the buff doesn’t put a character into a viable R3+ candidate and very few rank them up; it doesn’t help the players and only hurts them as we now have to deal with a harder defender.
But this isn't all about you trying to find a viable Rank 3 candidate. This is also supposed to be about somebody who's pulling their very first five or six star tech champion and not being completely mad that they walked away with nothing viable for the foreseeable future.
You'd still prefer using top tier r5 5* over mediocre 6*, who doesn't bring anything unique. If you are not going to r3 a 6* champ, why would you take him to r2?
I'm talking about the people who haven't even started act 5 yet. I'm talking about the people who maybe got lucky on a intro deal and got their hands on a five-star tech when they're still conqueror. They're not going to have R5 five stars!
Just want to let people know that the Gamora buff was pretty good we got and it took some testing and time to get a fair judgement on the character. Just cause Yondu's buff doesn't appear to be God-tier doesn't mean it is a bad buff.
Couldn't agree more. I use my rank 3 pretty much everywhere.
I don't feel confident reading DPXF abilities but I maybe wrong when we actually play him. The only utility with substance is taunt. Strange a Deadpool without regen.
I'm just failing to see what Yondu can do in the current meta. His kit hasn't changed with the exception of being able to steal some prowess. They showcase him as being able to be a good mutant counter now, but champs like Bishop can still eat him up. He didn't get an increase to his bleed damage, but just an increased chance to apply a bleed.
I feel like adding a True Strike buff to his kit would have made him much more valuable than simply increasing the timers on his abilities.
Being able to handle prowess is a big deal. However, it's still only a small number of matchups where that is critical but that number will grow moving forward. There are plenty of mutants where it just doesn't matter if they start stacking prowess because their specials are easily avoidable. They made him insignificantly better overall in general but much better against a few champs in particular (Apoc, Kitty, Havok, Storm, Bishop, Sauron, both Mags).
I disagree about him being better against Apoc, Bishop, and either Mags really. Apoc becomes bleed immune. Sure, you can add some armor breaks. Bishop deals direct damage whenever you bleed him. Mags has 90% bleed reduction.
When I say he's better I'm specifically comparing Yondu pre buff to Yondu post buff. I agree that he's not necessarily ideal for any of those 3 matchups, he's just better against them than he was before.
I don't feel confident reading DPXF abilities but I maybe wrong when we actually play him. The only utility with substance is taunt. Strange a Deadpool without regen.
He has super easy access to that Taunt and can stack it just as easily. You won't want to use him against Bleed Immune at all but Taunt is a powerful mechanic and useful in a lot of matchups, especially with the ongoing complaints about enemy A.I. I don't know if he got enough but he will be a far more usable character in this game moving forward.
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Would it be a stretch to say that Magneto was given a super OP buff because it was at a time when there was lots of people losing interst and we had the megathread and you guys needed something that would attract just about everyone and went full throttle with mags?
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Would it be a stretch to say that Magneto was given a super OP buff because it was at a time when there was lots of people losing interst and we had the megathread and you guys needed something that would attract just about everyone and went full throttle with mags?
PS: loving the dpx buff
... Yes, that would be a stretch. Magneto was our first foray into more constant buffs, and we had purposely decided to go a little crazier with him because he was a leader of Mutants that we wanted to make sure held his own against the two other leaders of Mutants that were added that same month.
We learned quickly that we overshot there, and needed to reel it back in if we were going to be consistent with these.
...Bishop deals direct damage when he’s bleeding and he has prowess stacks. Tech attackers don’t grant him prowess on landed hits. Nimrod deals energy damage, which is why Bishop still gains prowess in that particular matchup, but Yondu doesn’t (at least on his basics and sp1). So Yondu may be able to safely apply those bleeds. Not sure yet, I’d have to test it out.
You're absolutely right. Yondu annihilates Bishop in a straight fight.
It could be an issue on a node like Aggression:Prowess; but in a regular match Yondu works well against Bishop.
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Would it be a stretch to say that Magneto was given a super OP buff because it was at a time when there was lots of people losing interst and we had the megathread and you guys needed something that would attract just about everyone and went full throttle with mags?
PS: loving the dpx buff
... Yes, that would be a stretch. Magneto was our first foray into more constant buffs, and we had purposely decided to go a little crazier with him because he was a leader of Mutants that we wanted to make sure held his own against the two other leaders of Mutants that were added that same month.
We learned quickly that we overshot there, and needed to reel it back in if we were going to be consistent with these.
I understand you are required to say that by law, but wink twice and i won't tell anyone
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Id rather just have buffs happen less often but buffs with actual substance, then these kind of completely lackluster changes. Saves people the disappointment in the long run.
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Would it be a stretch to say that Magneto was given a super OP buff because it was at a time when there was lots of people losing interst and we had the megathread and you guys needed something that would attract just about everyone and went full throttle with mags?
PS: loving the dpx buff
... Yes, that would be a stretch. Magneto was our first foray into more constant buffs, and we had purposely decided to go a little crazier with him because he was a leader of Mutants that we wanted to make sure held his own against the two other leaders of Mutants that were added that same month.
We learned quickly that we overshot there, and needed to reel it back in if we were going to be consistent with these.
“Reel it back in” and “overshot”
Even though mags was overshot according to you, that doesn’t justify 90% of these buffs to be completely lacking and mediocre.
There were plenty of champs that just hit the mark or went slightly above like ultron, kp, falcon, mm, diablo etc. We don’t need more mags level buffs, but why not at least the level of those champs?
I’ve noticed that since the old program stopped and the new started with Psychoman, there seems to be less added to the buffed champs. This isn’t necessarily a comment on how good a champion ends up being, more about the number of abilities tweaked or the number added.
Sometimes that correlates with how good a champion is, but as you point out, Moleman became incredible with a small number of tweaks. Abilities added does usually correlate pretty strongly with utility though, and I think that’s what this program lacks.
Gamora, Mordo, psycho man and yondu all had very little changed. In Gamora’s case, she’s pretty good now though I suspect that’s due to the number of buffs she’s had! Yondu is yet to be seen, but psycho man is almost the same as before. Even the “bigger” updates of the month, storm and DPXF had very little added compared to the overhauls of the previous program.
Now, I know that this was pointed out in the announcement of the rebalancing because the team was spending time looking at new champions and their rebalancing. So I get it.
My question is about whether the game team has realised that these buffs feel kind of (for lack of a better phrase) half hearted, or if it’s a conscious decision.
I say this because DPXF seems to have an ability list of a 2017 champ, with taunt, bleed and a bit of power gain. I mean, that’s not an exaggeration- Sparky has taunt, power drain, stun and evade specials and he was made in July 2017. And it’s the same with Storm last month - prowess, shock immunity, a stun shrug counter and, that’s kinda it.
Psychoman had plenty of issues with his kit, but only got a fury duration increased. Yondu from my first impression, has a counter intuitive kit where you want to bait specials to get damage, but all his utility is around debuffs that stop the opponent gaining power. Gamora feels like the exception considering it’s her third buff, I don’t think we all want these champs to have 3 buffs to get to a rounded out stage. Mordo has great damage now, but, it feels like utility was just avoided.
It feels like either the team don’t want to add enough abilities so it’s a rounded out buff, or they don’t have time to. If they don’t have time to, then why not slow down the production of buffs so that we can get fewer, but better buffs. Quality over quantity. I’d take one Diablo over 5 Psychomans (psycho men?) any day.
I’m sorry for the long question, but the buff program last year was in my mind the absolute best thing to come out in the entire year. It invigorated conversation and hype each month like nothing else did, and all of a sudden it was just gone. The one it’s been replaced with does not give me the same hype that the last one did, and that right now feels by design. The old program didn’t churn out banger after banger, or top end game champs constantly, but it did keep it exciting.
Nobody is asking for all Magneto level, but maybe a few Ultron, falcon, hawkeye level would be nice.
Is the game team leaving these buffs lesser because of a lack of time? Or by design?
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Would it be a stretch to say that Magneto was given a super OP buff because it was at a time when there was lots of people losing interst and we had the megathread and you guys needed something that would attract just about everyone and went full throttle with mags?
PS: loving the dpx buff
... Yes, that would be a stretch. Magneto was our first foray into more constant buffs, and we had purposely decided to go a little crazier with him because he was a leader of Mutants that we wanted to make sure held his own against the two other leaders of Mutants that were added that same month.
We learned quickly that we overshot there, and needed to reel it back in if we were going to be consistent with these.
This is odd to me, Magneto yes is OP against metal but not really anywhere else and that’s ok. To say that you needed to reel it back feels like the same reasoning as to why we only recently got Wolvie and Scarlet as 6 stars.
Amazing players will always be able to use a champ how they want, for what they want. Make great characters, stop being afraid to give us some great buffs that make us live out our power fantasy. Give us a reason to stick around and look forward to something every month.
Seems like they spent very little time with this buff. Couldn’t even be bothered to touch his useless awakened ability.
Remember, from the very beginning, we've been clear that there are different levels of Buffs that we do, and not all of them will be overhauls. You should not expect that, and many of our simplest Buffs have been the ones that took Champs off the bench for a lot of people, like Mole Man or Terrax.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
Yes that last comment is what i been looking for everytime a buff is coming. I still have champs i don't have access too like nimrod himself but having Yondu as a alternative option is better then not having any option at all!. I always look forward to monthly buffs as it brings excitement...Game team did amazing job on Dpx love his skipping when entering a battle lol
Comments
Before the year end hiatus on the buff program, we saw Hawkeye, Joe Fix-It, Karnak, Nebula, Guillotine, Thor Rags, and Miles Morales. Guillotine is definitely the weakest link in there, in my opinion, but the rest of those are very solid and I’d argue comparable to the buffs we’ve seen this year.
I’m gonna keep being excited about buffs. There will certainly be duds mixed in (I’m still upset about how Guillotine came out), but overall it’s a good program.
Also, Bishop deals direct damage when he’s bleeding and he has prowess stacks. Tech attackers don’t grant him prowess on landed hits. Nimrod deals energy damage, which is why Bishop still gains prowess in that particular matchup, but Yondu doesn’t (at least on his basics and sp1). So Yondu may be able to safely apply those bleeds. Not sure yet, I’d have to test it out.
But of course because he's not being turned into a one hit KO God, somehow this is an unmitigated failure. It's ridiculous that the people argue that they want Buffs and tune-ups and then get mad when you get what you ask for.
Somebody else on this thread posted about potentially increasing the amount of tune-ups and as much as I would love for them to crank out a few more as quickly as possible, I also know that some people deserve a lot more than just that and they need that extra time and love to become something a lot better than what they are. I'm hoping one day it'll get there.
Again.. It's. Not. Just. About. You.
The intent of Buffs is not, and has never been, to make new Top Tier Champs (Magneto was the exception and not the rule), but to give more people access to more solutions to problems that they may not have. Nimrod is arguably a better Prowess remover than Yondu, but how many people have Nimrod compared to those that have Yondu?
PS: loving the dpx buff
We learned quickly that we overshot there, and needed to reel it back in if we were going to be consistent with these.
It could be an issue on a node like Aggression:Prowess; but in a regular match Yondu works well against Bishop.
Even though mags was overshot according to you, that doesn’t justify 90% of these buffs to be completely lacking and mediocre.
There were plenty of champs that just hit the mark or went slightly above like ultron, kp, falcon, mm, diablo etc. We don’t need more mags level buffs, but why not at least the level of those champs?
I’ve noticed that since the old program stopped and the new started with Psychoman, there seems to be less added to the buffed champs. This isn’t necessarily a comment on how good a champion ends up being, more about the number of abilities tweaked or the number added.
Sometimes that correlates with how good a champion is, but as you point out, Moleman became incredible with a small number of tweaks. Abilities added does usually correlate pretty strongly with utility though, and I think that’s what this program lacks.
Gamora, Mordo, psycho man and yondu all had very little changed. In Gamora’s case, she’s pretty good now though I suspect that’s due to the number of buffs she’s had! Yondu is yet to be seen, but psycho man is almost the same as before. Even the “bigger” updates of the month, storm and DPXF had very little added compared to the overhauls of the previous program.
Now, I know that this was pointed out in the announcement of the rebalancing because the team was spending time looking at new champions and their rebalancing. So I get it.
My question is about whether the game team has realised that these buffs feel kind of (for lack of a better phrase) half hearted, or if it’s a conscious decision.
I say this because DPXF seems to have an ability list of a 2017 champ, with taunt, bleed and a bit of power gain. I mean, that’s not an exaggeration- Sparky has taunt, power drain, stun and evade specials and he was made in July 2017. And it’s the same with Storm last month - prowess, shock immunity, a stun shrug counter and, that’s kinda it.
Psychoman had plenty of issues with his kit, but only got a fury duration increased. Yondu from my first impression, has a counter intuitive kit where you want to bait specials to get damage, but all his utility is around debuffs that stop the opponent gaining power. Gamora feels like the exception considering it’s her third buff, I don’t think we all want these champs to have 3 buffs to get to a rounded out stage. Mordo has great damage now, but, it feels like utility was just avoided.
It feels like either the team don’t want to add enough abilities so it’s a rounded out buff, or they don’t have time to. If they don’t have time to, then why not slow down the production of buffs so that we can get fewer, but better buffs. Quality over quantity. I’d take one Diablo over 5 Psychomans (psycho men?) any day.
I’m sorry for the long question, but the buff program last year was in my mind the absolute best thing to come out in the entire year. It invigorated conversation and hype each month like nothing else did, and all of a sudden it was just gone. The one it’s been replaced with does not give me the same hype that the last one did, and that right now feels by design. The old program didn’t churn out banger after banger, or top end game champs constantly, but it did keep it exciting.
Nobody is asking for all Magneto level, but maybe a few Ultron, falcon, hawkeye level would be nice.
Is the game team leaving these buffs lesser because of a lack of time? Or by design?
Amazing players will always be able to use a champ how they want, for what they want. Make great characters, stop being afraid to give us some great buffs that make us live out our power fantasy. Give us a reason to stick around and look forward to something every month.