Well still looks terrible and confusing. Or am I missing something?
Everything still seems very expensive and damage hidden behind countdowns or dependant on getting tentacles out and keeping them out.
Just asking for due diligence, but are you looking at the values on the right or on the left? The values in the right-hand column are the old mechanics and the values on the left are the new mechanics being implemented tomorrow.
I want to start out by saying that I’m very happy with these changes. I love it when characters get buffed so any criticism I have to offer shouldn’t discourage the fact that players want to see more of this. Even if its just simple match damage updates that sort of thing could essentially ‘fix’ OML or Phx right now.
The only real let down for Doc Ock here to me is the fact that his black doesn’t damage upfront. It presents a very high cost risk to the player for a skill that doesn’t seem to push limits so much that it must have this drawback to balance it out.
That nuclear reactor power still feels like a lot of work in a game with some straightforward options that’ll get the job done. I do like the blue re-work.
I’ll miss the versatility of the black’s stun, the extra damage and better strikes are nice, but you’ve got to protect the countdown, and like, from 4 to 5 covers, I’d trade the increase in damage/strikes for even one extra turn of stun.
Blue’s damage is just better all around, it won’t stink the first time you use it, and you can create tentacles and buff it without spending AP, just a flat improvement. I’ll miss the auto-matches by the tentacles, but it was hard to pull off even by design, and I’m sure I’ll get way more out of the protection from stun, and I like how both have kept the theme of “the tentacles keep acting even when Doc Ock is impaired”.
The green is far less complicated, and loses the nuke and auto-damage AND the abysmal cost in exchange for repeating and penalizing the opponent for removing it. Ock will be good for keeping allies alive and being a nuisance, which kinda feels like a Doc Ock thing to do.
He’ll be fun to run with Goblin, since Gobbo can keep the countdown/repeater alive. And my Hydra Henchmen that I’ve equipped to Doc Ock might be more valuable since they can fortify that repeater. (side note: Goblin needs a support, I want a Goblin-only perk that throws an extra pumpkin bomb of a random color when he uses that power, make him a little more chaotic)
Now we need another Sinister Six 5* character that has red and not black for color synergy, could be a fun team. As the only person in my alliance with a champed Ock, I look forward to getting some use out of him in this next event. And more use from him in general (though I am a crazy person who occasionally runs him in Shield Sim anyway).
The new Dr Ock looks great, but I’m confused about how his Reactor works now.
Questions:
You create a 3-turn repeater, it countdown to 0, and it becomes Phase 2. Then it restarts again, repeater countdown to 0 and it become Phase 3, and so on and so forth? Or do you need to create a new repeater for every phase?
if the repeater is fortified, is it considered “matched away” in order to trigger the passive damage dealt to enemy. I doubt not because it could be pretty broken.
I’ll miss his unique stun ability though. The cost for his black increased by 1ap, but it can be reduced to as low as 7ap.
The damage has been increased by close to 50% and the strength of the strike tiles have been increased by about 10%.
I like his old Tentacles more because it auto-creates one and it deals a total of 26,260 damage. The auto-matches made while he is stunned is a bonus.
For the new Tentacles, Dr. Ock will be immuned to stun with one match-4. The total damage for this new Tentacles would be 26,331. But it’s more likely to deal 18,677 damage.
His Reactor has been greatly simplified and comes with burst healing and the starting ap needed has been reduced from 13 to 6ap.
Immunity to Stun + Burst Healing = Thanos Wave fun.
What exactly is the point of this? I see a character who was complete trash tier before, extremely confusing and complicated to use, with some unique and fun (if bad) abilities.
The new version is a little better, I guess? But still trash tier and I’m not sure he leapfrogs a single other 5* in the rankings. He’s also still incredibly complicated, but loses some of his unique abilities and interactions.
Not one of his ability changes is an unconditional buff. Every improvement comes with a trade off. Why? Why not some straight up buffs with no downside instead of getting cute with this? This is not a character in danger of becoming the next Gambit.
Can I just say thank you for picking character rebalances back up? I’m not in 5* land and have no idea how much this is an improvement or not, but I’m happy we’re getting character rebalances again! It’s been so long since we got some and some of the characters really need a bit of a buff. See also-- Emma Frost.
Hopefully this starts to be a somewhat regular thing again!
@Brigby, again I’ll ask, is there going to be any kind of sell-back 5* token option for those who don’t want their Doc Oc after the changes? Like we saw when OML and Gambit were changed. Or even just an increased sale price for Doc Oc?
thanks for taking on a rebalance for him. he sorely needed it. my take:
black is… similar? slightly better or worse depending on your play style, i like it a bit less.
blue is massively better - i never see more than one tentacle on the board with old ock, which is not the way it should be. if things go wrong with a cascade, you can easily end up with a 26k nuke for 8 ap, which is very rare in a blue power. even with only one tentacle, you’re more than in line with newer 5* in the damage/ap range, and in a non-red color at that.
green is way less complicated, for the better. with the cheap first phase, i can easily see this turning into a major nuisance and driving ock up the kill order. and with the match penalty, no easy way to get rid of it. still don’t think we’ll see the final phase much outside of specialized play (pve waves?), but that’s ok.
overall, this takes one of the two worst 5* and brings him into solidly mid-tier, with some unique mechanics. well done.
I would guess it’ll be more like the Captain America (First Avenger) and Silver Surfer 5* changes before that. Maybe an increased sell price (like they do for 3*/4* updates), but no tokens.
