Bringing the 1* and 2* characters together

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Given the how quickly players can now move into a 2* roster (in effect 1* characters being left behind far quicker), why not merge the 1* and 2* characters into a single ranking (most likely all 2*).

You get a sudden and useful increase in the use of characters and team compositions and I would imagine there would be an increase in the desire to cover and level more 2* characters.

You would need to balance damage output but here is what the 2* roster would look like. The number is the new health of the character and is based on the complete levels of the character from the Marvel Power Ratings x 200, which is the rough equivalent of a current 2*.

Ares (Dark Avengers) – 4200
Black Widow (Modern) – *
Black Widow (Original) – *
Bullseye (Dark Avengers) – 2600
Captain America (Modern) – 3000
Daken (Dark Avengers) – 3400
Hawkeye (Classic) – *
Hawkeye (Modern) – *
Human Torch (Johnny Storm) - 3400
Iron Man (Model 35) – 5400
Juggernaut (Classic) – 4200
Magneto (Marvel NOW!) – 3800
Moonstone (Dark Avengers) – 3400
Spider-Man (Bag-Man) – 3000
Storm (Classic) – *
Storm (Modern) – *
Thor (Marvel NOW!) – 6000
Venom (Dark Avengers) – 3400
Wolverine (Astonishing X-Men) – 3600
Yelena Belova (Dark Avengers) – 2800

Crossover suggestions:

  • Black Widow: 2* Health – 3400. There are 2.5 different characters here. One option is to make two similar characters based on all 3 current variants and then one becomes the new 2* and the other the new 3*. A second option is to reformat BW (Grey Suit) into a different character (ie. a sniper focused one) - Punisher rework? and make an updated single character following the main idea. [Pick 3 abilities from Aggressive Recon, Deceptive Tactics, Espionage, Pistol, Sniper Rifle, Widow’s Sting]. Sorry, no Anti-Gravity Device (originally a formerly good healing ability)].

  • Hawkeye: 2* Health – 2600. Make (Modern) a 3* character. Both characters possibly reworked to be similar. [Pick 3 abilities from Arrow Stab, Blast Arrow, Electric Arrow, Speed Shot, Take Aim].

  • Storm: 2* Health – 3200. Similar to Black Widow, not so sure what to make of these two, given they are two different characters in three appearances. One idea would be to combine the three current variants into a single character and make one a 2* and one a 3*. Back up option would be to have her differing Hail focused and Wind focused characters and make one a 2* and one a 3*. [Pick 3 abilities from Hailstorm, Lightning Strike, Raging Tempest, Windstorm]. Sorry, no Mistress of the Elements (originally a formerly good environmental tile ability).

2

1* characters are needed for beginning players so they can very quickly advance their initial team. Perhaps more importantly, the smaller number of 1* characters lets them get more of the characters they choose to focus on. If they jumped straight into 2*, and an expanded 2* field no less, they would have a similar level of difficulty in getting enough covers for a single character to that faced by people in 2* phase looking for their first 3* to focus on.

3

You make an interesting point which I had loosely considered - the need to sort of walk people through the first stages of the game.

The general idea is that cover availability would remain roughly the same as now (as in anywhere from common to all the time). Early players would still get Yelena and all the other current 1s in the same way, but they would just be labelled as 2’s. I do recognise this is not a perfect model by any means, but I think the expanded use of an early-mid game roster would be highly beneficial.

One of my other variations of this concept, was just to have 3 rankings of characters - so triple versions of characters would each get a 1*, 2* and 3* version (hello 1* Astonishing Wolverine and 2* Patch), double versions of characters would likely have a 2* and a 3* and solo characters would get divided however. That’s the system I’d actually prefer given the current confines of the game structure.