Character Rebalance - 4* Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) (Live 2/16)

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Just in time for the premiere of Ant-Man: Quantumania, we’ve got reworks for three (sometimes) ant sized characters! These reworks make them work a bit better together, and in the case of Wasp and Wasp, actually usable together. Let’s get right to it, here’s Janet!

Wasp (Janet Van Dyne)

General: Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) and Wasp (Hope Van Dyne) are now usable at the same time.

Tactical Intuition - 5 Yellow AP
A good field tactician can anticipate the needs of battle and adjust the plan accordingly. Converts all friendly Strike tiles to Protect tiles and vice versa, Empowering them by 37. If no such tiles exist, creates a strength 37 Red Strike and Protect tile. For each Swarm tile on the board, increase these values by 50%, then remove all Swarm tiles. (Max level strength 72)

  • Level 2: Creates or Empowers by 52. (Max level strength 101)
  • Level 3: Creates or Empowers by 67. (Max level strength 130)
  • Level 4: Creates or Empowers by 96. (Max level strength 187)
  • Level 5: Creates or Empowers by 155. (Max level strength 302)
No change to the balance of the ability, it's already pretty good for cheap Strike/Protect creation. However, added a bonus portion to eat created Swarm tiles to make them even better. This can be used just because, but also is great for when you are using Ant-Man *and* Wasp and need to get Scott out of Grow for whatever reason and don't have the Blue or Purple to do it. Note: Possibly a minor bug here depending on when this gets pushed Live. She may be using her Board description in her Roster, so there'd be a placeholder-y "Current Increase: ($(NumIncrease))" there. Ability works fine, just pointing to the wrong description.

That Buzzing Sound - Blue Passive
(PASSIVE) Wasp shrinks down and flies around the battlefield, distracting opponents and gaining a tactical advantage. At the start of the turn, if you have at least 7 Blue AP, creates a random 1-turn Countdown tile that steals 1 AP and creates a Locked Swarm tile of its color (up to 4 tiles). If an enemy matches this Countdown tile, Wasp sings the target for 1056 damage. (Max 2057 damage)

  • Level 2: Deals 1473 damage. (Max 2869 damage)
  • Level 3: Steals 2 AP.
  • Level 4: Deals 2223 damage. (Max 4331 damage)
  • Level 5: Requires 6 Blue AP and deals 2853 damage. (Max 5558 damage)
This ability was already the crown of Janet's power set, and remains so. However, it also gains an additional function to help power the Swarm in creating a random Swarm tile every time the CD created goes off. Since this is random, it can also incidentally power Scott's abilities if it pops on Blue, Purple, or Red.

Wasp Sting - 7 Black AP
Wasp channels her bioelectric current into a painful sting. Deals 519 damage. If her team has at least 8 Blue AP, she stuns the target for 1 turn(s). (Max 1010 damage)

  • Level 2: Deals 880 damage. (Max 1713 damage)
  • Level 3: Stuns the target for 2 turns.
  • Level 4: Deals 1409 damage (Max 2741 damage)
  • Level 5: Deals 2298 damage and can stun the target for 3 turns. (Max 4473 damage)
Unchanged, this ability is already super cheap for a multi-turn stun and damage ability.
2

She isn´t chaned until now.
When she will changed?

3

At the start of the turn, if you have at least 7 Blue AP, creates a random 1-turn Countdown tile that steals 1 AP and creates a Locked Swarm tile of its color (up to 4 tiles).
[snip]
This ability was already the crown of Janet’s power set, and remains so. However, it also gains an additional function to help power the Swarm in creating a random Swarm tile every time the CD created goes off. Since this is random, it can also incidentally power Scott’s abilities if it pops on Blue, Purple, or Red.

Wait, but the swarm tile is locked? Doesn’t that mean it will not count unless matching/destroying it will remove the lock?

Also, is the “up to 4 tiles” global or per color?

4

Based on the lack of response, nobody expected or wanted a 4* rebalance. She is already a solid support and does not need locked Swarm tiles preventing the opponent from matching her CD for the damage. I would have been happy if they just scrapped 5s powers and just gave her 4s powers

5

@DeNappa said:

At the start of the turn, if you have at least 7 Blue AP, creates a random 1-turn Countdown tile that steals 1 AP and creates a Locked Swarm tile of its color (up to 4 tiles).
[snip]
This ability was already the crown of Janet’s power set, and remains so. However, it also gains an additional function to help power the Swarm in creating a random Swarm tile every time the CD created goes off. Since this is random, it can also incidentally power Scott’s abilities if it pops on Blue, Purple, or Red.

Wait, but the swarm tile is locked? Doesn’t that mean it will not count unless matching/destroying it will remove the lock?

Also, is the “up to 4 tiles” global or per color?

The swarm tile that the cool down creates is locked but still functions. The countdown still operates as before.

6

She’s always been one of the best support characters in the game. The weapons that made her so haven’t changed. So, can’t complain.

7

I was definitely surprised to see a rework. 4* was is an example of a very successful rework from demi. She was pretty terrible when released but has been quite solid ever since getting her current (I guess now it’s her previous) kit.

8

@Vhailorx said:

@Punisher5784 said:
Based on the lack of response, nobody expected or wanted a 4* rebalance. She is already a solid support and does not need locked Swarm tiles preventing the opponent from matching her CD for the damage. I would have been happy if they just scrapped 5s powers and just gave her 4s powers

I was definitely surprised to see a rework. 4* was is an example of a very successful rework from demi. She was pretty terrible when released but has been quite solid ever since getting her current (I guess now it’s her previous) kit.

Exactly! Her first rebalance is the perfect example of taking an F-rated character and boosting them to B-rated (A-rated support for that tier). During her rebalance was around the same time as 4* Captain Marvel’s release. Those two are such an awesome pair and they really helped me in my early 4* days