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

[Merusk]

When I ran cable up for his synergy a few months back all I did was Psionics. He was tolerable to play then, especially with proper use of his anti-ranged barrier. He's probably pretty good now that he's been tuned, but he's still fucking Cable so I don't even want to try.

In the end, I'd say Warmachine is ok. His CDs are too long for their strength and for just general game play enjoyment. I find myself sitting around waiting for the CDs to come back too often because Total War is just a single target thing. It needs to pierce or explode or something. You have to single target the stuff that your CDs don't kill. Which brings me to the other point, as you push up against rank 50 in a skill an 8 second CD should be killing all the things and his 15 second CD should kill all of the things and then some extra juice like Doom's Latverian Air Defense, that's a 15 second CD. Finally, his skills are unresponsive. I can't mash the crap out of them and they won't go off on occasion. His one off knock off is a literal killer in this area. That frequently doesn't fire and when it does decide to fire, the animation lock locks you invariably in the wrong place and you get blown up before it finishes. Finally, why'd they just cram Luke Cage inside that suit? Whenever he talks I just kind of cringe.

Cable took a bit to grow on me, but I kind of enjoy him.

Oh, one last thing on both of them, they have terrible tracking on their pew pew. Warmachine is particularly bad. Doops can get away because as long as they stay moving Total War can't hit them because his tracking is so slooooow. Hyper Viper Beam on Cable is similar, but at least it is a wide column.

I kind of agree with everything you're saying. WM is fun but, yeah, he's no heavy hitter. I'll use him for a few weeks to do Midtown clears, etc but he's not going to be going into the One Shots, Limbo or Ultron with me because he's just terrible on things yellow-level or higher. Some folks on the forum have managed to do the Cosmic trials with him already, but fuck that I don't have that many Omegas and I'm not that dedicated.

[Threash]

Well yeah, he's super tanky has good damage and several forms of becoming immune to damage apart from a costume core, that makes him basically ideal for the cosmic trial.

[Mattemeo]

Two of his builds don't even use the gun. It's actually kinda silly watching him standing there holding his gun and then not using it at all. 

I don't get why they didn't change Cable's idle/default animations to not include HERNIAGUN, like they did with Punisher and his 52 review. I suppose it's iconic, it just doesn't make a lot of sense if you roll Pscimatar build.
Then again I was always bugged that Nightcrawler scampers around with two sabres on his back when I use a swordless build.

[Fordel]

https://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/231610/pax-stream-images/p1

stuff from pax


Most important bit: http://i.imgur.com/7yFFwp5.jpg

[Mattemeo]

It's bizarre how much of an improvement that ANAD Captain Marvel is on the previous NOW! costume, considering how small the changes are. But it really is so much better. I think it's great that Gaz are granting it to current Ms. Marvel players to go with her name change.

As for the rest... all of my fuck yes for the MK Mr Knight costume, and I'm glad to see Zenpool show up, I thought that was a neat design. Love the Kitty Pryde Excalibur costume, it's cheesy as hell but appropriately so. I'm probably going to pre-order her anyway so I'm hoping it's part of her bundle.

[dd0029]

What did that "All new, all different" focus slide mean or was that just a reference to the controller support?

[Mattemeo]

I think it's just to show that they're already starting to put aspects of Marvel's new line-up/designs into the game, like Captain Marvel's default.

some more costume/character slides:

[Threash]

In case it wasn't clear that captain marvel costume is becoming her new default so if you don't have the old ms marvel one and want a chance to save it you should probably prestige at least once before they add it to the game.

[Mattemeo]

They've said all current Ms. Marvel players will keep the original costume and receive the ANAD Captain Marvel default for free. New Captain Marvel players will have to buy the original costume for Gs. So now's the time to grab Carol like her last date, if you haven't already.

[Merusk]

Yeah, you get to keep her current costume.

Anyone want to explain to a non-comic-follower wtf is the deal with Capt. vs. Ms. Marvel. All I know about her is she died and that's why Rogue is strong, can fly and is good. Why's Gaz switching her name and why's everyone so stoked about it?

Also: Not liking the new look. I'll continue to use the Blue-black Unitard.

[Trippy]

Carol didn't die when Rogue absorbed her powers, she just effectively returned to a normal person for a while.

Gazillion is switching the name cause Marvel switched the name.

[Mattemeo]

She was due the title of Captain for a good long time (a legacy thing), and when Kamela Khan (the new Ms. Marvel) became a consideration internally, Marvel changed Carol's title for Kelly Sue DeConnick's Marvel NOW! run, giving her a new look and a more militarised purview.

Even sillier is the fact that she's actually an Air Force Major by rank.

[Fordel]

Colonel actually.


Story Wise: Carol taking the Captain Marvel title is to honor the original Captain Marvel (an alien named Mar-Vell) who she admired greatly and who inadvertently gave Carol her powers. It's also to signify that she's finally living up to his ideal. Previously because of all the mishaps in her life she never felt like she deserved the title.


Business Wise: Marvel owns the copyright/trademark of the Captain Marvel comic book title, but in order to keep it they must release a Captain Marvel book every X years or risk losing it. The title has gone from character to character since Mar-Vell's death, some related to his legacy others having no direct association at all. Carol taking the title is the first one to have it stick in a great many years.


Fan Wise: Carol with the Captain Marvel title is basically a sign of 'security' for the character for lack of a better term.

As Ms. Marvel her most notable features revolved around her powers being stolen by Rogue, being put into a coma and losing her identity, being mind controlled and raped by a extra dimensional being, then giving birth to her own rapist who she was then forced to run off with while the Avengers all wished her happiness with her new 'lovey dovey'. (no really, that happened). Fill in the extra space with her butt cheeks and bossom and you have most of her history. Oh and she was a enormous hurtful drunk for awhile too. Tony is her sponsor I believe.

As Captain Marvel she has a solo book that has strong characterization and a wide supporting cast. A prominent role in team books. Up coming appearances in Marvel's cartoons and of course her inclusion into the MCU with her own movie on the horizon. She's isn't just an ancillary character anymore and is finally filling the role she just couldn't manage before. She's also wearing pants, that's a nice plus. 

[Threash]

Changes to Spit Fire coming:

Hey all!

Just wanted to drop in and say that Spit Fire's getting some nice quality of life changes this week, with the goal of making it significantly easier to hit targets.

Spit Fire now follows the mouse cursor at all times, rather than being locked into the initial direction.
Spit Fire's animation has been tweaked to bring the total time down, as well as reduce the amount of time spent charging up
Spit Fire's area of effect width has been increased by a factor of TEN. It's now a very wide beam of fiery destruction.
To accompany the new area of effect, the visuals to the power have been improved and increased in size.

We're still monitoring the data and metrics for where he stands in the charts, and thus have no tuning changes to make this week. He's incredibly survivable (to a slightly concerning degree, but not changeworthy yet), and his DPS is trailing a bit behind expected targets, but that's natural for the first week as players figure out the best gear and omega configurations and perfect their rotations. Quality of Life changes such as making Spit Fire more reliable will naturally increase DPS, so we'll see where things shake out next week before making any tuning adjustments.

Thanks!

...Oh, and the red Suit Power UI should be in this week as well

[Merusk]

Excellent changes, though I think either very-wide OR follow mouse would have been fine. It was always frustrating lining up a boss only to have it take a single step and dodge. The cases where they'd jump/ sprint out of the way were far fewer.

[Evildrider]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/09/04/marvel-heroes-developer-gazillion-suffers-layoffs-but-remains-very-healthy.aspx

Hmm wonder how bad of a layoff this was.

[Threash]

Apparently Doomsaw is out, he was the one who brought the game back from its shitty state at launch.  So is Amthua who was the one doing the unique reviews. From what i hear they never had the usual post launch lay offs because the game was in need of so much work so this is basically that.

[dd0029]

Seems like those are two odd losses. Amthua in particular as that person seemed actively working, maybe whomever it was developed such a workable itemization system that anyone can do it.

[Threash]

Ugh, i hope not cause this guy is totally right. I've gone through hundreds of War Machine uniques since he came out, haven't got anything above "mediocre" yet.

[Mattemeo]

Heretic, Amathua and Doomsaw gone? Those guys held pretty senior positions. That's... quite the shake up. Not just for the game, but the community 

[Merusk]

Doesn't bode well, IMO.

[Mattemeo]

Word from Doomsaw:

Hey folks,

I asked Dave (Brevik) if he thought it would be cool for me to post something to the forums so you guys could get some details.

As many of you know, I’ve been in the game industry for a long time. Over 20 years ago I started a small gaming/computer company, mostly dedicated to the Magic TCG while still in university in Windsor (right across from Detroit). I was hired by Wizards of the Coast pretty quickly and worked there for 7 years, doing the same kind of thing that I did when I joined Gazillion (many 100+ hour weeks, trying to make games & programs as awesome as possible). That company got huge as Magic grew and we added games like Pokemon, D&D, L5R and many others to the roster and were acquired by Hasbro.

After that, I started the Game Development group at Upper Deck. We had some solid products like Yu-Gi-Oh, World of Warcraft TCG and the amazing Marvel & DC game (Vs. System). Like Wizards of the Coast, we had another billion dollar games assortment (that YGO, though…). This again involved many years of 100+ work weeks while supporting a huge amount of games being built simultaneously by several development teams.

I took the Director of Creative Development job at Blizzard about 5 years later and worked with another group of incredibly talented people that brought new meaning to “crunch” times in game development.

After that, I really wanted to retire (and was blessed to have that ability), but an interesting League of Legends experimental project came calling and I worked on that for a couple of years. I became a player of Marvel Heroes because I knew some of the staff and loved the genre and the IP (Marvel). I came out of retirement to work with Dave (and the amazing staff) of Gazillion to help grow the game. Of course, many 100+ hour weeks came during that first year, as you all remember very well from my sleep/forum schedule.

All of this experience was amazing, but I knew I was getting to be an old man and for the last year or so I’ve talked with Dave on who we could grow at the company and make a smart succession plan for me. I got married to a wonderful wife who deserves some attention (assuming she isn’t an Elektra Skrull) and have a mom who is now a widow and deserves a bit more attention from me as well.

It was obvious that we had a crew of young designers who were incredibly talented and would be able to serve the game well. Ryan (Ryolnir) has had the title “Creative Designer” for awhile now for a reason. It’s because he should be Creative Director one day and I made sure that was in the works. Michael (Mayhem) is one of the most naturally talented designers I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot) - he is easily able to lead the hero design crew (which is key to the game). TheCosmicCupcake is incredibly dedicated and talented and she will very capably lead the team that creates items and events.

I do want to take a rest, but I have talked with Dave about helping out in the future in a minor or unofficial capacity, so we’ll see what we can work up, but I do want to make it super clear that the talent at the company is immense and the company is in very good hands. When we run a company that is funded with real dollars from real people, we have to be super smart about keeping costs reasonable and smartly structuring everything to continue for the future. That means cutting salaries at all tiers (including Doom tier).

Note that several layoffs occurred, but they were all cost motivated and have nothing to do with performance. Any performance related cuts happened months & years ago.

I also want to assure people that the direction of the game is in a good place. All of the designers on the team 100% agree that the focus should be new content, working on balance, fixing bugs, improving quality of life and making events better and better.

I will still provide as much assistance to these guys and gals as time allows. I just typed up some feedback notes for Deadpool’s level 52 review, so get hyped for that.

Marvel Heroes players are amazing and they set are the ones that set the bar.

http://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/comment/2965750#Comment_2965750

[Fordel]

It's not great, with Doomsaw and Amutha gone that's like 4 or 5 lead devs gone.

Some of the most active ones forum wise too.

[Nevermore]

The Doomsaw parting makes sense when you look back and see how he's been grooming Ryolnir to take over for months now.  Doomsaw's posting on the forums fell off dramatically like 6 or 7 months ago, and Ryolnir's really started picking up, for example.

That other prominent devs were let go is more troubling.  Wasn't it not that long ago that Gazillion was actively hiring more devs for MH?

[Ginaz]

From what I understand, it was only a handful of people let go, not dozens or hundreds.  I don't think the numbers are that big of a deal.

[Ironwood]

Dude wants to retire.  Can hardly fault him for that, since I want to retire too.

We'll wait and see what happens with the other though.  Game is still fun and, frankly, I don't have many of the concerns 'high level' players do, so, you know, fuck them.  FUCK THEM.  If I had a penny for every high level player that finds a game not instantly suited to their entire wants and needs, I COULD fucking retire.

So, to recap, fair enough and Fuck Them.

[Threash]

Yeah, the guy actually came out of retirement to fix the game.  I think he did a good job and now can ride of into the sunset.

[Segoris]

So tomorrow's/today's patch will have increased boss uniques/artifacts on most bosses. The ones not getting boosted (at this time, but being monitored) are shocker's, sinister's, doc octs, batroc's, kirigi's, axis one-shot with ultron artifacts likely being boosted next month.

With Doom receiving an increase in drop rates the Hands of Doom are already down to the 1-2b range in trade chat. Oddly enough Surtur runes haven't dropped yet but they probably won't drop nearly as bad for some time even with runes and twilights receiving an increased drop rate.

In another thread cosmiccupcake stated she'll look into the cosmic medallion drop rates (especially for Hulk and in the Patrol zones).

[Merusk]

Increased drop rates? Fantastic.

I've run Doom over two dozen times and never seen a single one of his uniques. I ran Taskmaster over 50 times in the last two days alone to farm Omegas and never saw his unique/ artifact drop either.  Not even a shit version, it just never came. I gave up farming Man-ape for his spear entirely after I got ONE really shitty version. No idea how many kills it was but it was over a week of midtown and wakanda with Doom. It was more time efficient to convert uniques to cash and reroll that shitty one. 

This is good news. 

[Threash]

So tomorrow's/today's patch will have increased boss uniques/artifacts on most bosses. The ones not getting boosted (at this time, but being monitored) are shocker's, sinister's, doc octs, batroc's, kirigi's, axis one-shot with ultron artifacts likely being boosted next month.

With Doom receiving an increase in drop rates the Hands of Doom are already down to the 1-2b range in trade chat. Oddly enough Surtur runes haven't dropped yet but they probably won't drop nearly as bad for some time even with runes and twilights receiving an increased drop rate.

In another thread cosmiccupcake stated she'll look into the cosmic medallion drop rates (especially for Hulk and in the Patrol zones).

Hod's have been in freefall for several weeks now.  They were always questionable as a top 4 artifact and the ARMOR and Mystic Mayhem artifacts are all very good and extremely easy to get so HoD demand is near nil now.

This is good news. 

I agree, and i say this as someone who was already artifact rich.

[Segoris]

Hod's have been in freefall for several weeks now.  They were always questionable as a top 4 artifact and the ARMOR and Mystic Mayhem artifacts are all very good and extremely easy to get so HoD demand is near nil now.

I agree, and i say this as someone who was already artifact rich.

I agree about HoDs, but for them to drop 75% just based off of this announcement (before any changes are even made) is pretty crazy.

[Fordel]

Fordel's level 30 review of random heroes:

Colossus - So far heavy punch man is very heavy and very punchy, but it isn't really bad. Has a decent variety of powers, good trash clearing, some mobility stuff (including a DFA style ground pound) and some nice boss crushers. There's some interesting interactions between skills with some CD refreshing on use of X skill and stuff, also the option to get damage and junk out of gearing for defensive stats is neat. No idea how that pans out at 60 though. Even has some shitty summons for flavor! Most of the animations are basic but clean enough, and I enjoy the spinning clothesline even if I don't actually use it. The run animation is pretty bad though, looks like he is holding in a deuce or something. The major hole that I see is he has shit for regen, health and spirit. Maybe I am missing something obvious, but it looks like some basic group buffs tied to the summons and some basic returners. I also have no idea what his secondary resource is about, haven't seen it be anything other then full so far. Still, far from the worst hero I've played.

Wolverine - Might be one of the worst heroes I've played  . Only level 30ish, but so far NOTHING feels good about this character. All the fun shit I was doing on X-23, it's like the opposite anti-fun on wolverine. My attacks don't flow together, I don't seem to be doing any damage, I am alarmingly squishy and I lack all but the most basic mobility. Like 1/4th to 1/3rd of my abilities are short duration buff abilities, I might have 5 whole attacks that aren't redundant with each other. Animations feel stunted and quirky, odd delays between actions and starting new actions. If there is some kind of magical synergy here, I don't fucking see it and I'm not sure if I care enough to try and find it. I have a perfectly wonderful X-23 that is a flying blender that seems to do everything Wovlerine does better. Magic 8-Ball says come back later.

Gambit - What a slick son of a bitch! He has wonderful animations and effects that all seem to flow together seamlessly so far. Cartwheel into a pole vaulting dive kick into a spinning staff attack that transitions through multiple variations of attacks. Nice variety of attacks, plenty of range, melee, AE and mobility. Already doing healthy damage and cruising through content without a hint of slow down. I haven't 100% grasped his regen scheme, but I seem to be unlocking some things that should provide decent synergy with his various AE's and cascades. Enough skill interaction to make things interesting but not so much that it's cumbersome. First impression is he is a well done hero that I'll easily take to cap.




Fordel's random ding 60 grats hero reviews:

Taskmaster - Enormous potential locked behind ancient mechanics. His variety of skills, his interesting combinations and his pretty good regen make the hero pretty easy to cruise around with. At the same time he feels... old. The attacks, the animations, they really feel outdated to me. Lots of stilted animations that lock you into place, attacks that take too long to fire off for little return and then there's that stance synergy system that on paper seems great, but in practice leaves much desired. He isn't BAD as far as I can tell, even with shit tier gear and a spec I pulled directly from my butt I was already making pretty darn good time through cosmic terminals. It wouldn't take much for me to get him to a point of managing the cosmic trial and stuff, but I'm not sure I care enough to bother. Not the worst thing I've played.

Spider-man - I found Spider-man enjoyable enough, plenty of variety of attacks, decent enough sustain and enough regen to get by. Animations are decent enough, though the web slinging is still sketchy and the webs themselves are annoying visual clutter. The main thing I couldn't get over, is the feeling that everything I was doing on Spider-man, I could be doing better on Captain Marvel. He felt like a less tanky and more linear Cap M to me. The same basic attack patterns, tons of skills that have direct mirrors, but just WORSE for the most part. Worse regen, worse sustain, worse defense, worse DoT effects etc... just wasn't feeling it. Again it wasn't BAD, he cruised to 60 effortlessly and smoothly, fine enough hero to play... just I'd rather be playing something else! Bonus points for having my spider-man teamup turn into the scarlet spider or whoever he is called. 

[Threash]

Cap Marvel is more of a slow heavy hitter, spidey is a lot more bouncy and attacks faster.

[Merusk]

I need to get L60 uniques for my Spidey sometime. I stopped playing him because he was squishy. I checked his gear the other day and realized he's squishy because he's still wearing level 40-50 equipment in several slots.  Hmm.

Is Omega continuing through this week, or did they patch and not flip the event yet?

No luck on Task or Doom's artifacts last night. Boo. On the upside I got more artifacts than I had previously, including a few Metasensory arrays, so that was nice.

[Threash]

They've taken to switching events on friday mornings regardless of when the patch actually hits since they are a bit inconsistent.  It's cosmic now, although the midtown shared quest just gave me omega boxes.