That first paragraph is just plain wrong. Drop Bears and Castle are much better & usable than probably half the 5s available, and to keep this on topic is say both are better than Green Goblin before or after this rebalance. I’m also not sure what the relevance is comparing new releases to rebalances. The release cadence is fixed and budgeted, I doubt it’s taking anything away from bug fixes or the other things you listed. If anything, spending less time to work out the kinks for these new releases could free up some time to spend on other projects.
Frank’s rage was messed up at release, but they fixed it pretty quick & it works well now. Use him with Sam Cap, he doesn’t make quite as many strikes as an ascended Jugg would with cascades, but adds utility with a stun and board shake. He also true heals back to full nearly every turn.
Bears unboosted and baby champed make one of, if not the single strongest strike tile in the game, and I think the strongest self buff on top of that short of Hotpool who needs to tank for his buff to work. They take damage to do it, but can true heal with purple while also removing enemy special tiles. Pair them with anyone who can equip Lucky and it gets insane quick and now that I think about it Hotpool could be a good partner just for that reason.
They aren’t the strongest meta characters, but I definitely wouldn’t call them worse than the majority of the tier. I’d use them any day of the week over Civil War Cap or Iron Man, either Black Widow, Black Bolt, Knull, Daken, Kingpin, Silver Surfer or Sable, Doc Oct, Joaquin Phoenix (Falcon), Phoenix Cyclops or Jubilee, Daredevil, Victor Mancha (who I forgot even existed), Black Panther, Odin, Heimdall, Loki, Bruce Banner, Miles Morales and really almost any other Spider verse natural 5. The list just keeps going for 5s I’d rather avoid, though some of this just comes down to different play styles.
I’d also say as much as you’re right about QoL, bug fixes, new events etc are worth spending time on, rebalancing characters is also good for the longevity of the game. Not everyone can have the super deep roster so they always have the best of the boosted list, but what they do have should at least be mildly viable just to keep players engaged & brackets full. At least a few in my alliance have switched from chasing the newest releases to spending all their CP on classics & seen their rosters bump up & widen, but still don’t want to use most of the 5s out there. Heroics just highlight the power gap, and increase the need to buff some of these older 5s.
