Hulkling and Wiccan Balancing Follow Up
MCOC Team
Administrator, Admin [en] Administrator › Posts: 612
Hey all,
Balance Team here with another update, this time on Hulkling and Wiccan! We recently went through our internal process for evaluating their performance over the last few months and have the following to share with y’all:
Arcane Theft (Heavy): Gain a Power Gain passive, granting 1% of Max Power over 10 second(s). Max 10 stacks. Nullifies up to one Fury, Precision, or Power Gain Buff off the Opponent to increase the potency of the Power Gain Passive to 5%.
The effect of this spell was intended to be low impact unless the Opponent has one of 3 specific Buffs for Wiccan to Nullify, but even at its current base potency (1%), Wiccan is able to stack enough copies of the spell to outpace the Opponent’s recovery window, as well as their window to punish a Blocked Special. This allows Wiccan to eventually loop special attacks over and over without any interaction or interruption from the opponent. While this requires a lot of time to set up and is only applicable in niche scenarios, this play pattern is something we would like to curb by adding a Max Stack limit to this spell.
In a matchup where the Opponent does not have Fury, Precision or Power Gain Buffs to Nullify, the intent is for the Arcane Spell to mostly serve as a Unique Spell for his Sp2. We considered lowering the base potency of the Power Gain to 0% instead of 1% in order to completely remove its effectiveness as well as the infinite loop vs. non-targeted matchups. However, we liked that adding a Max Stack limit also achieves our goal while also leaving some value to the spell in non-targeted matchups.
We’ll also be adding Iron Man (Infinity War)’s changes to the Beta at the same time for players to try out and give us feedback, with the hope the process goes well so we can place future tune-ups on there, too. After the Beta, we’ll take a look at the feedback and data and iterate if needed. Wiccan and Iron Man (Infinity War) with their changes then hit the Battlerealm with our January (37.2) release.
Balance Team here with another update, this time on Hulkling and Wiccan! We recently went through our internal process for evaluating their performance over the last few months and have the following to share with y’all:
Hulkling
So far we’re happy with how Hulkling is performing in the Battlerealm! Hulkling was designed to be a Cosmic bruiser, with access to consistent damage as long as you can trigger his Pierce and Fury buffs. In Alliance Wars, we’re seeing him match up well against some of his intended targets such as Peni Parker, while also doing well in other matchups where you can utilize his Immunities. All in all, we’re happy with where Hulkling has landed and will be leaving him as is.Wiccan
Wiccan was designed to lean into his Utility more, featuring one of the most accessible Neutralize effects in the game, a few niche Immunities targeted towards Knull, and Regeneration vs. annoying effects such as Terrax’s Rock Field. In regards to his Damage output, we wanted his Damage to spike in matchups where the Opponent has Buffs for your Neutralize to fail and for it to be lower in other matchups. While we’re happy with how Wiccan is currently sitting in the Meta, there is an edge case that we would like to address by making the following change to Wiccan’s Arcane Theft spell (changes in Bold) :Arcane Theft (Heavy): Gain a Power Gain passive, granting 1% of Max Power over 10 second(s). Max 10 stacks. Nullifies up to one Fury, Precision, or Power Gain Buff off the Opponent to increase the potency of the Power Gain Passive to 5%.
Why are we making this change?
Our goal is for Wiccan to perform exactly as he has been for basically every fight so far, while also preventing an unfun, unhealthy loop from feeling like something players have to use in any future fights.The effect of this spell was intended to be low impact unless the Opponent has one of 3 specific Buffs for Wiccan to Nullify, but even at its current base potency (1%), Wiccan is able to stack enough copies of the spell to outpace the Opponent’s recovery window, as well as their window to punish a Blocked Special. This allows Wiccan to eventually loop special attacks over and over without any interaction or interruption from the opponent. While this requires a lot of time to set up and is only applicable in niche scenarios, this play pattern is something we would like to curb by adding a Max Stack limit to this spell.
In a matchup where the Opponent does not have Fury, Precision or Power Gain Buffs to Nullify, the intent is for the Arcane Spell to mostly serve as a Unique Spell for his Sp2. We considered lowering the base potency of the Power Gain to 0% instead of 1% in order to completely remove its effectiveness as well as the infinite loop vs. non-targeted matchups. However, we liked that adding a Max Stack limit also achieves our goal while also leaving some value to the spell in non-targeted matchups.
What happens next?
Beta time! The plan is for us to have this round of Rebalancing changes go through a Beta in November. We’re currently working on the last steps of setup and will have more details shortly. We’ll be looking for player feedback on the tuning changes and if they’re hitting their goals!One more thing…
With Hulkling needing no changes and Wiccan only needing a small one, we had the time to invest in a value-only update for someone else, too–Iron Man (Infinity War)! As a Champion that’s always been a defender first, we’re looking to keep that identity while also making his attacker loops feel more accessible so he can be a serviceable option, especially in Battlegrounds, even if he’s on the slower side. Look forward to longer Plasmas and Incinerates, easier access to Stun on his Special Attack 2, and more!We’ll also be adding Iron Man (Infinity War)’s changes to the Beta at the same time for players to try out and give us feedback, with the hope the process goes well so we can place future tune-ups on there, too. After the Beta, we’ll take a look at the feedback and data and iterate if needed. Wiccan and Iron Man (Infinity War) with their changes then hit the Battlerealm with our January (37.2) release.
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