A positive outlook on the future

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Where to begin where to begin..

We all saw the Rag nerf coming from a mile away. People have been screaming for it since the first lightning round that buffed the villians. For the people who didn’t see it coming, well, hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

But let’s take a look at what Electro posted regarding upcoming tweaking.

Invisible Woman (Classic)
Thor (Marvel NOW!)
Wolverine (X-Force)
Wolverine (Astonishing X-Men)
Hawkeye (Modern)
Magneto (Classic)
Spiderman (Classic)

Judging from the “leaked” wolverine (Whether that was confirmed true or not), and Ares, stronger characters will have downsides to using their abilities. I think this is critical in the future success of this game both as a game and for the company. Healing characters will become more critical as abilities will have consequences. For too long the game was about “How fast can you finish the match.” and while I do agree that if you eliminate any power creep, and stagnate damage that it can get boring, people seem to be missing the most important thing.

If this continues, you will be able to play who you want, and be successful doing it.

I know people can get caught up in their own emotions when it comes to how much time and money they put into a character only to see something of the character change. I still have to thank C-storm for helping me get to upper 2 star lower three star tier where I am now. Plus with the Hunt going on now again, I’m finding myself dumping more iso into characters who I wouldn’t normally put any in. Captain America and Modern Hawkeye for example, were both in their teens, and are now at 20/25 respectively. Heck, I even put some iso into the Hulk and he’s gotten up 5-6 levels. Did the Hulk seem as interesting before? Not when the meta was RagMagSpidey, but with the future taking S/A tier characters and tweaking them to be more in line where they belong, the future seems a bit brighter in my personal opinion.

(Note, I do think that the nerf on TC was a bit heavy, but if they are planning on changing Thor too, then they might be hitting his Red as well. Whether they decide if thats a good idea only time can tell. Remember that because this is an online only game, if they don’t like what the nerfs/changes do to gameplay, they can be reverted. Hell, I’ve played League of Legends long enough to tell you that characters fluctuate to hell and back. Just don’t let your emotions get the better of you.)

2

Thanks for the positive post. Agree wholeheartedly. Especially:

Remember that because this is an online only game, if they don’t like what the nerfs/changes do to gameplay, they can be reverted. Hell, I’ve played League of Legends long enough to tell you that characters fluctuate to hell and back. Just don’t let your emotions get the better of you.)

I have the feeling after a few rounds of changes, they’ll buff Rags back up. Not to his former status, but un-gimp him.

3

I also failed to mention one thing in my original post. Once again this is just my opinion but I believe that Original Black Widow is quite possibly one of the best things to happen to this game. Her skillsets are great and she is a shining beacon of what a utility support character is like. The fact that she’s a two star means that she’s not impossible to reach for beginners and casual players as well. If they continue to pump out characters who utilize their traits like her, it’ll be a good day to be a player for this game.

4

the huge gaping flaw in this is that every time you nerf something like rag, you nerf all characters which were specced a certain way because of rag

his red was so good that it affected my decision to put into or not into other heros

his green generation was so fast that it affected my decision on how strong other green skills were.

what i learned from this is that since they don’t plan on respec any time soon, you want to build all characters in a total vacuum, because otherwise it’s dominos when they nerf something. and definitely making a team of low cost heros (e.g. spiderman / magneto) is not wise because there is no way they’ll survive in their current form.

5

That’s the thing though. People should be building the characters to optimize the style of play they find the most fun or they are most successful with. Yeah it’s a shame if you built up a team designed around one persons ability, but you either have to work your way around it or leave. I had five or six characters sitting in my cover box back when C-Storm baiting was the way to place high. I didn’t have any three stars with more than one or two covers. Yeah sure I was a little disappointed to see her change, but I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. Plus it allowed me to level up characters who now I actually have fun playing with. If they go around mindlessly swinging the nerf bat then yeah, it will be bad. But this is the second “Nerf” that I’ve seen since I’ve started playing a few months ago.(I wasn’t around for the Loki change mind you, but I still think he’s a great support character, especially in certain teamcomps and against Daken or Punisher.)

He’s not the only one that can build green though, and you can still play a team to that ability. His ability was on a 2AP ticker though. While I stated before earlier I think they hit the hammer a little too hard, they really should have kept the same damage and just never decreased the AP cost. He isn’t nearly as scary to face in a defensive standpoint anymore because you’re not afraid of the horrible cascades he used to be capable of.
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I believe that’s one of the reasons why it’s still in a so called “Beta”. They still have things fluctuating. It’s an online PVP based game and things like that change. It all goes back to my original point that I think they are heading in the right direction because people will be able to play the characters they want to play. I’ve always felt underpowered because while I have some characters maxed and can play decently in tournaments, my Magneto is 4/0/1, my Rag is 1/1, and my Spidey just got his first blue card the morning this weeks double shot started. A development team has to look at the big picture of its playerbase as well as what they strive to accomplish from the getgo when it comes to their goals. I firmly believe one of their goals is to allow players to play their favorite characters and not feel like they are being completely gimped because of it.

6

I’m pretty worried about the pve balancing being forgotten in the light of all these changes.
Sure we got our Spidey/Wolfie/Thor’s right now to do the insanely hard 240s but Nerf those 3 to the same levels they smacked rags? shudders its not a pretty thought.

7

I’m sure they’ll notice eventually if almost nobody can beat those levels anymore, but there might be some growing pains.

8

They’ve also been known to be able to hotfix those. During the first run of the Hulk there was a mission where it labeled characters 85 but in game they were level 15’s. If the stats say no one is beating the levels they can adjust accordingly. Hell, Even the Savage Lands section is harder vs. during the first hunt.
Notice too they aren’t talking about changing all 3’s. GBW, DD, I40, Hood, Punisher, and Hulk are all unannounced(with the last two due to being so recently released.) I think people are also so upset over these announced upcoming changes (isn’t that what people have been begging for? Forewarn announcements about changes?), that they didn’t see that they are planning on “fixing” the 4 stars, which I am excited for personally.

9

I’m looking forward to giving a retooled 4* Wolverine a spin. Mine is at 2/1/2 and level 54, ready to grow however they revise him.

10

My 4* are sitting at a respective 0/0/2 level 35 for IW and 1/0/2 34 for Wolvy. Ill definitely be aiming for the top spot during the end of the Hulk even though it would be my third yellow for him, haha.

11

The huge gaping flaw is that every time you nerf a character you lessen the odds that people will actually spend money on the game. If they implement a reasonable refund policy and respec system then I retract this statement.

12

got My number 4 at 163 he needs a major make over just swap powers with his number 2 star and fixed

13

Keep in mind that I don’t own a Rag at all and agree he needed needed but they have proven over time that their idea of a balanced Nerf has historically neutered the character And given them bag status. (Storm being the exception due to two other useful abilities)

14

This is really quite key. Outside of LR I didnt use Rag all that much, partially because I was not maxed due to cover cap even though I had 5 red, because there were innovative and fun ways to use the buffed chars. That leads me to believe that Rag was not as OP as quite a few people thought, which in turn reinforces that the nerf bat was swung WAY too hard. To make his AP mimic Thor could makes sense, but take away his damage and tile generation as well plus neglect giving him a third skill? It speaks to the poor thinking of the devs to whack all FOUR rather than just adjust one, which is the core issue: things were not well thought out.

My goal in the game was to max Rag, followed by the other 3*s. I had banked 35k iso (up to 45k after people have sent me some) waiting on a Rag cover but now I have no clue where to put it. I could do Spidey (3/5/5), BWGS (5/3/5), IM 40 (5/5/3), Pun (3/2/4) or Hulk (3/2/2) but the uncertainty of what will happen has kept me from doing it not to mention the slow game play has lead me to play less.

Per the topic, looking to the future: the placement in the current Hunt is WAY, WAY easier than the first which really concerns me as it likely means that a significant number of the “good” and/or dedicated players have left. I attribute that to lack of communication, drastic change in style of game play (speed and matches vs skills) without the ability to adjust characters accordingly. To loop back, the poor thinking of the devs as evidenced by the poor job of balancing (if you can call tipping scales from screwed up one way to screwed up another “balancing”). Just does not bode well for the player base.

15

The problem wasn’t the rag nerf, per se, it’s the design philosophy espoused by the post explaining the change. I dunno about you, but I don’t want to play a game where a sub 1k 3* power is thought to be “worth” 12 red AP.

16

I think there are a ton of players who don’t even use this forum. I think they should start adding change notes in game, as well as giving people fair warning in game to planned changes. That’d probably resolve most of the negative feelings I have. It’s just the communication. They’re doing better in the forum with news posts, although their communication with the actual players in the forum or responding to threads is abysmal. Hopefully they add some more information in-game though. Have seen some MMO iOS games do this successfully.