So that they could pit Ares against players in the Ares essential. Because boosted Juggernaut with his AP costs fixed isn’t enough of a pain. 
When was the last time Ares was essential? I can’t actually recall it ever happening before, but I suppose it must have.
Previously, villains were only Essential in Prodigal Sun, Simulator, Gauntlet and Deadpool vs MPQ. On the two-star front, we have four villains, so they were essential very rarely. Personally, I am happy we can get more villain covers as PvE rewards.
Except they changed the node when Jean would have to fight herself in last HoD run. So there is precedence for not needing to change the game at global level.
I kind of liked the Ares on Ares action (I had a level 302 Boosted X-23 to take the shots from Onslaught and Headbutt Though)
funny when a boosted and already tanky Ragnarok ends up taking no damage
You have some green!
No, YOU have some green!!
I was thinking the same last night.. this change likely saves them time on having to switch out characters for essentials.
Also, I am noticing a lot more T/U’s being used against for a character that’s on my team. You used to only see that in PVP but now with the change it’s consistent in PVE. If there was a T/U the enemy had that I didn’t like I would simply change my character to the T/U they had equipped but now that method does not work.
But on the other hand, your TUs are only locked out for the characters you bring (admittedly not as helpful when you are only facing Dark Avengers).
I thought it was funny overall. A little annoying because you are always racing for the same colors, so my powers fired much less often than his do. Not annoying enough to be mad, just a weird development.
Yeah, the primary point is probably so they don’t have to limit who they make essential or remember who’s in the nodes and change them. The other point, there was a screenshot from one of the Deadpool vs MPQ runs where someone went to the Daken essential, and some bug had him fighting Daken, and PVE rules kept him from being able to play the mission.
My first thoughts was that ending character lockouts would have been more helpful at the beginning of the game, when smaller rosters made lockouts hurt a lot more. Heading towards 100 roster slots, it’s not going to make a lot of difference to me at this point. Good for new people starting the game, though.
of course now that means your Red Hulk can get gamma siphoned by a tu