In september 2015 deimurge revealed 5s and said that once high-covered 5s were starting to filter down into the player base, 4*s would receive a buff to fill in the massive power gap between tiers.
Championing is apparently that buff, except that it doesn’t actually serve that stated purpose (either for 3s or 4s). championiong requires dozens and dozens of covers to let lower tier characters approach the level of unboosted characters in the next tier up. How many people have sold more than 75 covers for any given 3*, let alone a 4* in their entire time with this game?
Why is “Just get 100 more covers” and a game balance solution when it currently takes most players several months just to collect 13?
Championing was a fun new mechanic that certainly got people (including me) back into the game. So I can see its value as a pushing out the treadmill and breathing value back into 2* and 3* rewards that lost their luster months ago. But it seems useless as a means of lifting 4s up to 5 power levels (especially since 5*s can also be championed).
I think it’s naive at this point to consider championing anything other than an outlet for the whales to continue spending cash. It’s neat that I now get use out of some covers that used to be sold, but it’s also obvious that I won’t be max champing any 3s (let alone 4s) before I’m done playing this game.
Though in a way, having gargantuan headroom like that is fun because it’ll make rosters much more diverse. A few whales will have max champs, but most players will have 3s and 4s that are all over the place in terms of level.
Championing is not the 4* buff. The 4* buff is the nice upswing in power that 4s get from levels 300-370. Right after that buff came out, Carnage was boosted for the week. My champ Carnage was boosted to level 350 or so, had 28k health and his red did 8800/2800 for 7 AP. That’s pretty close to a near-max 5 in power. Remember the bug that caused Hulkbuster to be over-leveled for that 1 PvE? He was level 404 for me and destroyed the entire PvE singlehandedly. Sure, he wasn’t supposed to be that high to begin with, but it shows the power of the boosted 4s now. Couple that with the fact that 4 different 4s are boosted each week, and you can do a lot of damage with a good 4* roster.
The 2 problems with this are that the match damage for boosted 4s is still leagues below the 5 tier and that your 4s have to be maxed or darn close to max to see the real benefits. But a person with 2 boosted 4s can easily compete in PvP and PvE with most 5* teams.
I think this is it on the money - boosted 4s are monsterous right now. The only caveat I’d add is you need to have these boosted 4s (working on it, myself) and they have to be good. I’ll admit, I’m looking at the boosted Ant-man and X-23 teams and thinking “I can take those…”
On the bright side - it makes high middle tier characters a lot more interesting. Carnage, for instance, isn’t a bad character, just not as good as IMHB, JG, Rulk, Cyclops, etc. When boosted, though…