I think most players would agree the devs are still operating from behind the 8-ball with most players looking at suspicion with what is prioritized, what is being done, how well things are implemented. (Edit: I was a bit extreme so I would say many players are upset with the game instead of most. People who are experiencing lots of crashes definitely question priorities though.)
I do not expect massive surpluses in rewards or vault reworks that are seen as costing the company etc, but one idea is to add some limited 5* reworks and poll us so we can help select who gets reworked, and then provide input as to how. I know that 1-4s are getting some attention and I can think of plenty of reasons to do so over 5s (swapping is much more accessible for lower tiers, limited access to a hard to get group of classic 5s, low ROI as few will chase a hard to get character who is now just a little better than before, etc) but some added community engagement around this to help players see they are being respected and treated as partners to some degree in the project of keeping a 13 year old game in business.
If I were able to run this I would do something like:
Put up a list of 10 options
when the winner is chosen the present a list of proposed changes for players to see and possibly give feedback on
have the mindset that however it ends up the character feels like someone who you’d choose when boosted (aka having inexpensive and relatively quick dmg potential and/or a clear synergy use)
Do something crazy like when the rework goes live you can get a full 13 covers worth of shards for $20 like with a 1-5.
Do this like every 2 months if possible, or every month (pie in the sky)
Maybe this is all a lot of work and there’s no capacity for it but I figured why not put it out there? Who knows. There are 121 5s and basically you probably never use more than say 40 of them at the extreme ends, so 81+ just sit there slowly getting a cover and a half from PVE every 3 years.
I fully support 5* rebalances but once again we must accept we are living in La La Land here on the forums sometimes.
“with most players looking at suspicion with what is proposed”
No, the vocal minority are doing this, especially if the stats given to us about only 1% of players have champed 5* is still true (maybe it has increased) we can’t be using “most players” as a metric. Maybe “My buddies on line all agree” is a more accurate representation. And nothing wrong with that but we really must stop pretending we know what “most players” want.
We’re not their partners, we’re their customers. They design the game, and we play it (or don’t!). The absolute last thing MPQ needs right now is MORE player influence over design.
I would look at the 4s and down, with ascended being a thing, everyone has a better chance of being able to benefit from some meaningful and thought out passive changes. Rock paper scissor sort of stuff.
This is just my personal take, i cant talk for the devs as it isnt my place.
The devs said recently (in the “roadmap?”) that they’re focusing on buffing lower tier characters in the relatively near term. I think that’s good, because there really aren’t THAT many natural 5​ that are egregiously bad right now. It’s like BW, Odin, Heimdall, Abigail, who else? (Please don’t name characters that you’ve never actually used or looked at).
The language used here, not for the first time, suggests that the OP has overwhelming confirmation that they speak for the entire community but that cannot possibly be the case. I don’t know what everyone wants the Devs to spend their time on and so I don’t ever claim to speak for “most players”. I don’t think anyone should ever claim this unless they have a probable mandate to speak on behalf of all.
I remember reading this too and it seems a more majority friendly approach than buffing a 5 that only a few thousand players might have. If they have time to do the 5s as well then that would be fantastic also but I don’t see why they would involve players in those sort of decisions. Players have completely different agenda to the Devs.
Honestly I have enjoyed the 2 star Moonstone rebalance. Why? Because I face her often in pve and this is a strategy game lol. Rebalance the dark avengers and make pve more of a challenge.
The main hurdle for obscure 5s is that Loki was released in 2018. There are players who started in 2023 who probably barely have him at 450. Once a character leaves the LL it is a slog. My alt is in pve clearance level 8 with just shards waiting until I get one cover tomorrow.
If anything lower the cost of classics down to 150cp when they are featured. I will happily take that over a rebalance.
The devs definitely have stats for least used characters and characters with the highest loss percentages. A poll would be somewhat pointless, IMO.
I think I’ve sort of hinted at this before, but in my view they should be aiming for a big reshuffle of what is meta approximately every 6 months.
Some characters do need major reworks and of course, we can’t expect a major rework of every barely playable character twice a year. If someone could attempt a major rework of 3 characters per rarity level every 6 months with a dozen or so minor tweaks (eg one ability costs one AP less) in the same period for other characters at the extreme ends of meta and non meta, that would feel to me like am achievable, reasonable goal.
I think it’s highly unlikely that a majority of MPQ players (or even a majority of active MPQ players) spend any time at all thinking about the developers.
Most players log in and do a few matches every couple days, because this is a phone game. Do normal people spend time thinking about whether the Wordle developers treat them with respect? Do the players of Candy Crush feel like they’re valued members of a community?
In my opinion if they do frequent reworks for 5s they should make max champing 5s or whatever star ranking easier. That theoretically would lessen some of the bad feelings when someone’s fave gets the Old Yeller treatment. (Mind you it probably wont, but it should).
Didn’t they just release heroic mode to make PvE more of a challenge for those who want it???
I personally hate when they buff some old dusty character by a large amount and suddenly PvE gets more difficult (meanwhile I never see this character ever in PvP so the change is essentially to make PvE harder).
That’s probably because you’re in the 4 star soft cap mmr. I see tons of moonstone every time she’s boosted including myself. Boosted to level 672 and paired with iron may her purple hits for about a million damage, so nothing survives it.
Bring 2 purple ap supports and soul stone. Fire purple, a character dies, stone refunds purple, repeat 2 more times. Matches are over in 5 seconds
I super agree. I think that 5s are the big fun characters to chase in MPQ, 6s being the giant misfire that they are.
Yeah there are a lot of 5s over the years, but with classic legends, new character stores, and shards being in all sorts of vaults, there’s still plenty of room for them!
that are egregiously bad right now. It’s like BW, Odin, Heimdall, Abigail, who else? (Please don’t name characters that you’ve never actually used or looked at).