Fix a 5* -- Episode 3: Goblin Bombs

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Character Discussion
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Why am I doing this? Who can say… but here we go again! Let’s take a look at Norman and see what’s what…

5* Green Goblin (Norman Osborn)

Quick Recap:

Black - Spend 8 AP and slam the target for decent damage BUT then a countdown starts that has to finish before you can fire it again

Purple - Spend 10 AP and pick something you want to do… with countdowns. Get some hits, put out some Strikes, steal some AP, stun… whatever times 3.

Yellow - Spend 9 AP to reduce the timers on countdowns by 1. Also passively fortifies 3 countdowns and/or repeaters each turn.

My Suggestions:

Much like my criticism of Jean, he’s also pretty weak, particularly from a health perspective. That’s not often a big deal, but given the 5* class and who he should be competitive with and having no means to true heal himself… he should be a little healthier. Giving his match damage a bump wouldn’t bother me either.

For the powers as a whole, the glider and bombs are thematically perfect. The Goblin King thing… I don’t know. I guess it’s fine, but seems like it could do these things and something more and still not be overpowered.

Starting with Black… it’s solid and in line with other black big-damage powers (having a drawback), while not being too expensive. I’d like to see the black turn into a cheap power that can fortify friendly countdowns though, so you could fire it off, fortify your countdown and then wait for it to come back so you can fire again. Depending on the board you have the option to not bother fortifying and saving AP for the next chance to fire… but I like options and Goblin doesn’t have a lot. That he can be nerfed mid-match by just an unlucky board is annoying and really points to the idea that this should do even more damage.

Purple is not bad I guess, but is kinda slow for how likely it is that you’re not going to get the full benefits of firing it by the time they go off. Also, why doesn’t the game explain the colors? Why the mystery? I’d like to see each of the powers buffed a little just because I feel like the AP:effect ratio isn’t quite right.

Yellow needs something. It can be helpful, but how often are you just overloaded with Yellow that you can’t spend some better way? This power also feels like it should give him health back, so there’s more reasons to fire the power. The idea that you could litter the board with so many countdowns that you’d want to potentially have this power at 5 covers… I think we all know that’s absurd, but why not bake in a reason with some kind of health burst, which is definitely in line with a yellow power.

Overall: Norman has loose compatibility with the other Spidey-foes in the tier, but might as well be paired with 5-eye and Coulson for a countdown-a-thon that drags on for a while, but is completely absurd. He needs something more. Maybe the serum needs to be represented, or some other aspect of his crazy. He lacks for an unpredictability that might even make him a worse character to use, but be more thematic. These days he just doesn’t have a hook and Norman deserves better.

How would you give GG a boost? Show me your power-design prowess!

Previous Episodes:
Black Widow
Jean Grey

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Black: If the countdown gets destroyed, he gets mad about someone stealing/breaking his glider and the power turns into Serum Rage, boosting his base match damage.
Purple: Tweak the numbers, but the main thing to me is that the blue countdowns should target random enemies. As it stands, it’s pointless if more than one of the countdowns survives, because they’ll all just hit the same target, and the extras are wasted.
Yellow: After it fortifies, gain some amount of health for each friendly fortified countdown on the board. True healing.

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Match damage and health obviously need to be brought to present levels, i.e.-Doc Ock. There are many things that need help with him to be competitive.

Purple could use an accelerator. If his yellow would fuel his purple, I believe this could be beneficial to his attributes. (Cd resolution generates x and y purple, maybe even black, respectively). His stun on purple just isnt used. Everyone uses red. What could be interesting is to turn them into health grants. Then you could decide on something that matters: damage or health. I love the the theme of his purple skill, but no one truly uses all of the colors. They pale in comparison to what red offers, even purple.

His black definitely needs a destruction component. No one in game offers such terrible alternatives to losing an in game skill. It just completely gets lost and you have to rely on purple. Terrible. He needs another scary, albeit, complimenting scenario in which the opponent has to decide whether it’s worth it to let his cd resolve or not. This would be really interesting.

Yellow-complete overhaul. Just redo it.

Norman is Spider-man’s greatest foe. Do him some injustice!

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Oh, also, as a Spider-Man foe, it would be nice to see some way of clearing out Web tiles. Maybe a Passive attached to Goblin Glider, so whenever he makes a match (or maybe only on a black match, or only a match-4+, it would need some testing to figure out what worked best), he removes a random Web tile as his Glider slices through them.

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Are you certain? I seem to remember this being changed, way back when, so that his blue CDs will kick the newly stunned target to the back. Haven’t tried to play GG in ages though.

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I know it happened like that at least once for me, but I almost never use GG, so it may have been changed in the interim. If it hasn’t been changed like that, it should be.

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His black is good, but I would love a positive passive component to it, where his match damage goes up if it’s matched.

Purple is ok. I think the stun component should stun random enemies though.

As for his yellow, I would like it to also somehow alter the countdowns of repeaters as well. It would give him something no other character has and I believe he would be added to some teams with repeaters.