Gazillion's Marvel MMO - F2P, Play as existing Marvel characters only

[dd0029]

Fortune cards specially since they can drop uniques with challenge bonuses.

While I agree with the sentiment, I get retcons, epic team up gear and costume cores. I may have gotten one single unique without a challenge bonus. I'd put that in the realm of dropping costumes, technically possible but wildly unlikely.

[Threash]

I got two uniques with challenge bonuses yesterday of the cards.

[Pezzle]

What are challenge bonuses?

Are there other characters that offer the same level of good times mayhem as the Juggernaut?

[March]

It's a checkbox in the graphics options that does exactly that, turns off all the effects but your own and enemies. I don't see how you could play midtown without it.

  I suppose you mean the Allied Power Particles check-box in the video settings.  Not sure how I missed that, thanks.

[Segoris]

What are challenge bonuses?

Challenge bonuses are mostly found on raid gear, and they give +1 to an attribute randomly. So if you found a unique, at the bottom it would say "Challenge bonus +1 strength" or something along those lines. Though some events grant challenge bonuses on uniques, like midtown madness cards and during the omega event.

As for other chars like Juggs I'd say Iron Man, Mr Fantastic, Silver Surfer, and Luke Cage all have some similar feeling to Juggs. SS for movement, MrF for a cooldown mashing good time, Luke Cage for screen clearing AoE, and Iron Man for being awesome at pretty much everything.

[Threash]

Jugg was incredibly well done, super fun and highly effective.  Gaz gets better at making characters fun and making them feel right with every release.  Sadly that means older heroes tend to feel crappier by comparison.  Gambit holds up really well in the fun and effectiveness departments though and is my usual recommendation, on the other hand Psylocke is super fun too and atm brokenly OP.

[Trippy]

I haven't played Juggy yet but I'm not a fan of their move towards extended power cooldowns with the newer heroes.

[Mazakiel]

Jugg was incredibly well done, super fun and highly effective.  Gaz gets better at making characters fun and making them feel right with every release.  Sadly that means older heroes tend to feel crappier by comparison.  Gambit holds up really well in the fun and effectiveness departments though and is my usual recommendation, on the other hand Psylocke is super fun too and atm brokenly OP.

They seem willing to go back and update older heroes, though, from what I've been able to tell so far. 

[Mattemeo]

Ms Marvel and Nightcrawler could definitely do with a boost now I'm used to Gambit and Psylocke. They're not perfectly analgous but there are distinct similarities in their play-styles, especially hyrbid.

Ms M needs a good boost of pre-Crashdown Strike love, and CdS itself could do with a going over to bring it in line. NC's problems are many, including his bafflingly bad signature and his severe lack of defenses.
Both are still fun to play, but I've tasted the new kool-aid now and I demand refreshment on a par for all my favourite chars.

[Threash]

Melee Nova is like a far superior version of what Ms M should be, you can't play him and then go back to her.

[Fordel]

Both Nova and Rogue's baseline powers are basically Ms. M's power set 'but better'.

I have little doubt they'll bring her up to par though, she's just in that odd group that got her 52 review first and needs another QoL pass. She currently just gets by pretty well on raw power mostly, her baseline survivability and regen is just so high it carries her through a lot.

[Furiously]

It's a checkbox in the graphics options that does exactly that, turns off all the effects but your own and enemies. I don't see how you could play midtown without it.

  I suppose you mean the Allied Power Particles check-box in the video settings.  Not sure how I missed that, thanks.

Now if and when you raid. You need to turn it back on because the debuff circles won't show otherwise....

[dd0029]

Psylocke really is amazing. Slightly squishy, but she more than makes up for it with output. About my only complaint is that you need one extra button for her second melee AoE skill.

[Threash]

If you drop your illusions on cooldown you hardly ever get targeted and the squishiness goes away completely.

[dd0029]

I also flew through Captain America over the weekend after getting the Coulson team-up. Cap is fun, but he could use some of the Psylocke loving because he's mostly just waiting for his three CDs to be up. Coulson is a nice team-up, but his interaction with Cap was more than a little disappointing. Outside of logging in, I don't think I ever heard Coulson say anything.

The new patrol zone sounds neat, but I'm a bit concerned with their tuning goals. It seems like they are pitching it around Zoo levels. While the Zoo isn't "hard" per se, those ranged mobs - the spitting monkeys the bat things - hit like a truck. My decently geared Squirrel Girl fell over in a heap the first time I ran into a pack of them. I just didn't have enough HP to survive a second volley before I figured out what was going on.

[Fordel]

What is your SG's HP/Defense? They don't hit THAT hard unless you are total glass.

[dd0029]

It's been a while, but I know I'm around 13k HP and whatever Defense a midtier set of 60 SG uniques runs, whatever it is that's in Ruggler's guide on the forum with the GLA shirt instead of the Sinister.

I wanted to see what a volley did, so I just took one with my 17k Cyclops. Those spitting monkeys can clock you for 10k. That'd eat my Farmbit.

[Segoris]

It's been a while, but I know I'm around 13k HP and whatever Defense a midtier set of 60 SG uniques runs, whatever it is that's in Ruggler's guide on the forum with the GLA shirt instead of the Sinister.

Even with more hp/defense it's not going to help your SG that much, you just need to dodge the charges and the poison spit and you'll be fine. I'm in mostly bis gear (just missing the Monarch Cloak) with almost 17k hp and I can drop down to about 4-5k hp in a second in the zoo if I'm not careful. Which is kind of nice since with the exception of Kurse, Doom, and raids I pretty much just run SG on auto-pilot and never worry about dying.

[Threash]

New zone with todays patch.  It sounds like a lot of fun.

[Yegolev]

Sounds like the same Jackson Pollock visual design but with different paint buckets?

[Ironwood]

Is the Thor revamp any good ?

[Threash]

From what little i played on test it is not Psylocke/Ghost Rider levels of good but it is definitely an improvement.  He wasn't nearly as bad as some other characters to being with actually.

[Mattemeo]

Industry City Patrol is fun, though I'd have liked a little more variety in the actual map. It's basically Chapter 2 in condensed form with a range of cycling co-op quests to beat up various badguys/rescue folks. It's a far cry from the near lethargic pace of Midtown if you really want to commit to it, otherwise I'd say it just makes a change and you can go about your own merry business busting heads as you like, with the occasional musical boss interlude. Each quest completion gives you a midtown-madness style box of goodies (mostly epic gear, the occasional Unique). Frenetic and fun and a great addition to the Shared Quests gameplay. I believe it'll alternate with Midtown for the daily.

[Threash]

New code: PATROL

[Trippy]

Industry City Patrol is fun, though I'd have liked a little more variety in the actual map. It's basically Chapter 2 in condensed form with a range of cycling co-op quests to beat up various badguys/rescue folks. It's a far cry from the near lethargic pace of Midtown if you really want to commit to it, otherwise I'd say it just makes a change and you can go about your own merry business busting heads as you like, with the occasional musical boss interlude. Each quest completion gives you a midtown-madness style box of goodies (mostly epic gear, the occasional Unique). Frenetic and fun and a great addition to the Shared Quests gameplay. I believe it'll alternate with Midtown for the daily.

The bosses have a fuckton of HPs on this map.

[Mattemeo]

The bosses have a fuckton of HPs on this map.

Yeah, it's not meant to be a soloable zone (at least when it comes to boss fights). I expect it's doable if you've got the time/inclination but otherwise just wait till there's more players to join in.

[Threash]

The timed events are in no way soloable, i had no problems at all killing venom by myself though.

[dd0029]

I wound up stuck in one that had some six boss event with Kingpin. That wasn't timed and yeah that was never happening. The fast trash spawn plus Bullseye was too much. Oh and I've only gotten past the idol stage on whatever that serpent idol one is once. Those things have way too many HPs, there need to be groups at all three going at the same time to kill them in time.

[dd0029]

Juggernaut got much more interesting once I figured out Stride doesn't work as a left click power. It was a tad confusing because I didn't realize that just walking built momentum. Derp.

[Threash]

It works if you hold shift.

[dd0029]

I can't decide if I like Industry City. I think I like it more in concept than I do in implementation. The events are really neat for the most part.

There could really be a bit more than a minute between events. They also need to localize the events a bit more. Even with a travel power, some of the stages can be tough to tag in time before they switch. Which brings up a point, the HP scaling is weird from event to event. Tombstone, the Mindless Titan and the Spiderman Clone to a lesser extent all go down like chumps. But then the six boss events  like Loki and Kingpin take an eternity. Also, the new loot only seems to show up at 60. For most of the weekend, I was leveling and I didn't see any of the new medallions. Then I switch over to Cyclops and I get a medallion nearly every event.

[March]

I can't decide if I like Industry City. I think I like it more in concept than I do in implementation. The events are really neat for the most part.

There could really be a bit more than a minute between events. They also need to localize the events a bit more. Even with a travel power, some of the stages can be tough to tag in time before they switch. Which brings up a point, the HP scaling is weird from event to event. Tombstone, the Mindless Titan and the Spiderman Clone to a lesser extent all go down like chumps. But then the six boss events  like Loki and Kingpin take an eternity. Also, the new loot only seems to show up at 60. For most of the weekend, I was leveling and I didn't see any of the new medallions. Then I switch over to Cyclops and I get a medallion nearly every event.

Starting to lean towards no (at least during leveling)... the map is too craggly given the amount of running hither and yon, the events/timers don't scale to the number of people in the zone, which causes the events to fail more often than they succeed, and I don't like that they replaced Mid-town for the shared quest daily with IC... I would have preferred it become an additional option.

[Typhon]

I like that they do outside + indoor areas in the same map, but I would like IC better if it was small-group/solo focused and had done more scripting in the event waves.  Racing all over the map to try to be a part of the event is annoying given how intricate the map is. 

[Mattemeo]

If they completely cut out the Dockyard/Cargo Unit half of the map and left it with the Factory/Assemblage area it would be so much easier to deal with in terms of travel-time and it would look a lot less like they just C&P'd half an old zone onto a new one. Which is what they did, and then threw even more containers into it.

I think the staged events are good; though a longer break between each arc would be beneficial, and the doors into the buildings need to be made a lot more noticable, especially if you're stuck on the blind side looking for a way in. The Mindless Titan/Cultist arc is the only one I've encountered problems with, and that's 50% design fault, 50% player fault (Idols have too much HP, players stand around like idiots after taking one down instead of finding another, mission fails). Hopefully they can get the drops/rewards properly implemented. It's annoying when you manage to solo 4 out of 6 Spider Clones and get nothing for it. Incidentally I've had two Batroc Boots drop; one L60 and another at L45.

[Scold]

So after SWTOR I'm jonesing for more of a story-based experiences -- since you fully inhabit Marvel characters, what's the degree of story immersion in this? Could you play it SWTOR-like, just doing each character's storyline and not really worrying about the MMO aspects? Also, is the combat nice and twitchy, or is it more of a DIKU-y tab-targeting, mind-your-cooldowns affair?