Marvel Heroes

[GreenGoo]

Welp, I'm on 14 heroes level'd to 10. I jokingly said to my son that I was going to take all 58(ish?) starting heroes to level 10 before I pick one to uncap. Now I'm not so sure it was a joke.

I have always had a serious alt problem and this game seems no different. All the heroes seem to play differently enough as to provide a unique experience for each of them.

I'm not sure what Deadpool's resource is (Awesome) as it isn't used for any of his abilities. What was even weirder was that his skills didn't seem to have any cooldowns or costs, so spamming whatever you want seemed totally viable. He definitely felt very powerful compared to some of the others.

I've died once I'm embarrassed to say, when Spidey got low on health and Electro zapped him while I ran up some stairs. I thought the skill would miss as there was a height differential.

Lotsa fun. Very solid character designs.

[Max Peck]

Deadpool doesn't consume a resource (because running out of juice just wouldn't be awesome). His (or her, if you play as Lady Deadpool) Awesome stat gives a passive buff by way of Body Slide by One and also determines the magnitude of the brutal chance/damage bonus with Hulk Hand Arrow.

[GreenGoo]

Well, I'm up to 28 heroes at level 10. I think there are 59 starting heroes.

I'm pretty much ready to start delving deeper into the game, but I'm still at a loss as to what to do.

it is my understanding that you get 1 free uncap, and then enough eternity stones from the Day 6 login gift to unlock another. Seeing as I don't have a burning desire for any specific hero, I could probably use those stones to unlock 2ish random heroes, is that right?

I have to say that some of the hero mechanics are quite interesting. Ant-man was pretty cool, but the mechanic was less intuitive and more fiddly than I like. Quite a few heroes are duplicates or amalgamations of each other, but enough are unique to make them really fun to play.

Any suggestions on what I should do for my first 2 or 3 heroes? Are synergies still part of the game? I had read that Cyclops gives decent xp synergies at levels 25/50, is that true? Too bad I didn't find Cyclops particularly compelling.

I've played so many heroes now that they've all kind of bled together. To remember a hero I have to look at him in the roster, otherwise I forget they even exist, let alone that I've played them.

[Daehawk]

This is my problem. I just cannot get into the game because I have so many heroes and cant figure out which one to play and stick one. Feel like Im missing out .

[GreenGoo]

On the plus side, I think I could be happy with 80% of the heroes I've played, so that's a good sign.

Unfortunately I have always had a serious alt problem, and with so many fun heroes, it will be hard to focus on just a couple.

[ColdSteel]

I found Iron Man an awful lot of fun to play.

[Max Peck]

Well, for those of us who can't get enough alts, there are also 3 more in the pipeline -- Beast, Black Bolt and Nick Fury are still incoming from the 2016 advance pack.

For go-to mains, I like either Lady Deadpool or Jean Grey/Phoenix. Or Hulk. Or Spider-Girl. Or Rogue. Or Ultron. Or Squirrel Girl. Or Rocket Raccoon. Or Emma Frost. Or Loki. Or...

[GreenGoo]

Scarlet Witch was ridiculously over powered for levels 1 through 10. Of course they all are at that level, but she more than most.

[Tao]

Scarlet Witch is my absolute favorite hero, I have leveled her to 60 multiple times and was just thinking of trying another prestige run. Her power sets and play style just work really well for me and I find her a lot of fun. Her abilities that unleash raw chaos to instantly vaporize lesser enemies are my favorite powers in the game. She has the trifecta; great damage, survivability and mobility. I am a big fan of pet classes in any game and so I have tried most of the pet classes in Marvel. I have Loki, Ice Man, Doom, Rocket and as of last night Ultron all at 60. Ultron seems to have the best suvivability as his drones go an awesome job (so far) of holding aggro and as soon as one dies you can instantly replace it with another. Compared to the other heroes tho his damage seems to be on the lower side so fights tend to take longer. Ice Man is probably my favorite pet class/summoner, he has decent survival and great damage. Loki was one of my very first heroes and I leveled him to 60 a couple of times but he has fallen behind the other summoners for me. Doom I recently leveled to 60 and he is a lot of fun if you like summoner's. His ultimate has a great animation as well. Rocket can be fun but he turrets are all stationary and so he also fell by the wayside for me. If you are looking for a good melee hero I found Colossus quite fun although I have not leveled him to 60 but that's more about my leaning toward ranged more than melee. Rogue is a fun hero too as you can play her multiple ways by simply stealing different powers. I run her mostly as a summoner/melee hybrid.

I don't currently have Jean Grey or Venom but from what I understand both are very solid choices to start out with as well.

[GreenGoo]

Thanks for the insight Tao.

Is it me or did they remove the "random hero for 200 eternity splinters" option in the splinter store?

I ran 4 or 5 more heroes to level 10. I'm finally burning out on doing that, so I will probably uncap someone soon. I'll probably narrow it down to about 5 and then decide from there.

I say that, but I can already tell I'm going to level at least a couple more to 10 first. I just switched to Nightcrawler, who I've always liked as a character. We'll see how he plays.

I love melee and I like Colossus so he was one of the first I tried. I was still getting a feel for the game at that point but he definitely did well. I'm not sure he ever took damage due to his armour.

Is melee viable at the later levels? I presume the game gets much more challenging as you progress. I would prefer not to pick a character that is completely gimped at higher levels.

[Zenn7]

Thanks for the insight Tao.

Is it me or did they remove the "random hero for 200 eternity splinters" option in the splinter store?

I ran 4 or 5 more heroes to level 10. I'm finally burning out on doing that, so I will probably uncap someone soon. I'll probably narrow it down to about 5 and then decide from there.

I say that, but I can already tell I'm going to level at least a couple more to 10 first. I just switched to Nightcrawler, who I've always liked as a character. We'll see how he plays.

I love melee and I like Colossus so he was one of the first I tried. I was still getting a feel for the game at that point but he definitely did well. I'm not sure he ever took damage due to his armour.

Is melee viable at the later levels? I presume the game gets much more challenging as you progress. I would prefer not to pick a character that is completely gimped at higher levels.

The random hero boxes are only 175 eternity splinters (you looking at Adam Warlock for them right?).

Melee generally get more health/endurance or other defense that makes standing toe to toe a little more viable (similar to other MMO/ARPG games). I've played Hulk, Thing, Nightcrawler and Wolverine to 60 and no problems with any of them. Though if there is a significant ranged option, I usually go that right (did that with Spider-Man, Captain America and Taskmaster, not characters I traditionally associate as significantly range characters, more just some supplemental ranged options). I don't play end game stuff much though, just get to 60 and rarely do much after that. Go level the next hero then.

[Jaddison]

Is the upcoming big change really going to cause players to abandon the game? How bad is this big change?

[GreenGoo]

The random hero box is between the teamups and the heroes, so it's kind of in the middle. I scrolled past it.

Here's my plan:

1. Use free uncap on a 600 splinter hero of my choice (considering there are only 7 starting heroes that cost 600 splinters, that narrows it down some)
2. Use 175 splinters on a random hero
3. Use another 175 splinters on another random hero OR buy 200 splinter Scarlet Witch.

I'm sitting around 650 splinters so I have some options, but I think the above is probably "good enough" to get me playing deeper into the game.

Let me know if there is a problem with this approach.

So for step one I have the following heroes to choose from:

Deadpool
Doom
Doctor Strange
Ghost RIder
Iron Man
Rogue (since when can Rogue fly?)
Spider-man

I've always been partial to Ghost Rider, but I was not overly impressed while playing him. Deadpool seemed pretty awesome (no pun intended) but I suspect everyone and their mother is playing him after the recent movie success.

The only one I haven't played is Dr. Strange, so I'll go try him out now.

[GreenGoo]

Elektra, besides having a dumb name, plays extremely well. She's incredibly mobile, has a ton of aoe melee, and obviously has lots bonuses against marked targets.

At least up to level 10.

[GreenGoo]

Is the upcoming big change really going to cause players to abandon the game? How bad is this big change?

Details would be great. Chat is filled with discussion, but rarely anything solid or informative.

[Daehawk]

So for me who cant play because theres so many heroes to choose from and am always worried Ill pick a gimpy one or Im missing out by not playing a different one....would Scarlet Witch be a great choice to just go back and pick her and stick with her?

[Max Peck]

If I was going to pick just one hero to play, I think I'd go with Rogue. If you burn out on a particular build, she can just go out and steal a whole new set of powers.

[Zenn7]

If I was going to pick just one hero to play, I think I'd go with Rogue. If you burn out on a particular build, she can just go out and steal a whole new set of powers.

I'll second Max's recommendation for Rogue, for the same reason he pointed out. She's the only character that gives you that extreme variety.

[GreenGoo]

What do you guys do when you have 7+ skills you want to use regularly?

[Max Peck]

What do you guys do when you have 7+ skills you want to use regularly?

There are 3 toolbars, but you have to switch between them (i.e. you can't have all three up at the same time). Supposedly it is possible to edit an ini file to enable multitoolbar hotkeys, but I've never bothered with that.

[GreenGoo]

I was afraid of that. Oh well, that kind of sucks. I'll probably check out the .ini file settings if I end up with a skill heavy hero.

And the result of my first random hero box is:

The Thing!

Wouldn't have been my first choice, but he is fun, he does have that clobber mechanic which is interesting, and I'm a bit of a sucker for the big and meaty tanks, so it could have been far worse.

So after 35 hours of play (lol?) I've finally unlocked a hero. I'm going to use my free uncap on Doctor Doom I think.

[GreenGoo]

And Doctor Doom is unlocked with my free uncap.

I have almost 600 more ES so if I need a change I can grab a couple more heroes.

[Tao]

Doom is lots of fun, he has several viable builds and play styles. I would steer clear of Dr. Strange until you get a better feel for the game as he is probably the most complex hero to play. You need multiple hot bars and lots of micromanagement on skills. My mouse scroll wheel has left and right click options so I put the "switch hot bar" there and can instantly switch back and forth as needed. YMMV but it works well for me.

[GreenGoo]

Any reason to not "vaporize" blue and below items? The game feels a little monty haul'ish, as purples fall like rain and cosmics aren't that far behind. Inventory management is becoming an issue.

I assume "vaporize" just removes the items from the server, and there is no benefit for your character?

[Daehawk]

I logged in and grabbed Witch only to find all but 2 slots filled with all kinds of crazy stuff in her inv. Now my bank totally full of stuff I dont know if I should keep or not since I dont play and her inv is half full still.

[Tao]

after level 15 I only pick up cosmic or higher gear and artifacts and relics etc. Even doing that I have serious bank issues with tons of artifacts, legendary's, stacks of each relic and so forth. Get yourself one of the "pets" which you can feed unwanted gear to which turns them in to a stat item.

[Daehawk]

It gave me a free pet..some kinda ice golem. I also have Hero items ..the ones that give you that hero. but I have almost all heros so kinda useless. I MAY just delete everything in my back and inv other than stat boosters and start clean

[Max Peck]

Any reason to not "vaporize" blue and below items? The game feels a little monty haul'ish, as purples fall like rain and cosmics aren't that far behind. Inventory management is becoming an issue.

I assume "vaporize" just removes the items from the server, and there is no benefit for your character?

If you have a cosmetic pet equipped, hoovered-up loot goes toward their cybernetic upgrades. Otherwise (or if the corresponding upgrade is complete for your equipped pet) it gives you a small amount of credits (~1% of the normal sell value).

[GreenGoo]

Where can I find a pet?

The Thing is a beast. He's level 38 and just stands toe to toe with any bosses so far. I love that he challenges The Hulk to a rematch (or vice versa) every time I'm near him. Quite frankly it's hard to imagine The Hulk handling him. He's monstrous. Juggernaut brags that he rang The Thing's bell before, but I don't believe it.

Doom is 31 and much slower. Still fun though.

[Max Peck]

Where can I find a pet?

This pet guide provides all the details on pets and cybernetic affixes (right down to a hero-by-hero best-in-slot analysis).

How to get your Pets
(Spoilered for readability)

Spoiler:

Log-in Reward
The log-in reward for day 100 is a pet.
Exclusive Great Ultron

The log-in reward for day 400 is a pet.
purple H.E.R.B.I.E.

The log-in reward during the final week of the third anniversary celebration was a pet.
Lucky, the Pizza Dog

Genosha Influence
Once you reach 1600 Genosha Influence, you can buy pets at the Genosha Quartermaster (Madison Jeffries) in Hammer Bay for around 864,404 credits.

Cube Shards
With 10 cube shards (you can get over 20 a day,) you can buy a Fortune Card Mark 1. This can contain one of the following as a rare drop:
Old Lace
HERBIE
Iron Buddy

Gs
For 950 G, you can buy the following:
HERBIE
Iron Buddy
Mini-Dragon Man
Old Lace
Spider-Ham
Throg
Ultron Silver
Headpool (sometimes)

The following function as pets and also as callable vendors, and are purchasable with Gs.
Holographic Crafter - 950 G
STASH Access Card - 950 G
Holographic Weapon Vendor - 750 Gs

You can also buy card packs, some of which give you pets as a rare drop. They are listed below.

Fortune Card Mark 1
Old Lace
HERBIE
Iron Buddy

Fortune Card Mark 2
Vision
Ultron Gold

Fortune Card Mark 3
Spider-Ham

Fortune Card Mark 4
Symbiote Spider-Ham

Fortune Card Mark 6
Holographic Crafter

Uncanny Fortune Card
Bamf

Prestige a Hero
If you prestige your hero, you can buy the following pets (listed in order, the first pet is for prestige level 1, the second for prestige level 2, etc.)
Green Iron Buddy
Blue Iron Buddy
Purple Iron Buddy
Orange Iron Buddy
Red Iron Buddy
Cosmic Iron Buddy

Splinters
For 350 splinters you can get:
Old Lace

Drop
Very rarely a pet can drop in-game. I have gotten an Old Lace, and have heard of Ultron Silver dropping in Ultron mode..
Old Lace
Ultron Silver

Cosmic Chaos Event
You can buy the following pet for 2000 Worldstones, during the Cosmic Chaos Event
Cosmic Doop Companion

That pet list isn't exhaustive, btw.

[GreenGoo]

Thanks Max.

[ColdSteel]

I've played the game quite a bit in the past. I have 15 heroes unlocked and 3 of those at level 60. That said, I haven't played the game in quite a while and was looking to maybe get back into it after getting Doc Strange. I was kind of dismayed to see just how many changes there have been since I last played. I was even more dismayed to find out that there are even more wholesale changes on the way soon. I would guess these are to cater to the hardcore players who spend all the money on the game but for me I don't like all the changes.

One other thing I am forcibly reminded of every time I login after a long hiatus is the inventory nightmare. I know Gaz decided that a shared inventory for all heroes is good because it encourages players to buy more stash space. Indeed the money I've spent on the game was for more stash slots. I stopped buying them though because there's just too much stuff. I spend half my time juggling it and deciding what to keep or get rid of. Not fun. So when I logged in on my new hero and saw that his inventory was already full and all my stash slots were full, I just put the game down again. Not worth the hassle.

[Tao]

Personally I am okay with the current state of the game. The change that allows for free respec of powers was good, no more grinding the same mission and hoarding respec tokens. If this was a game where you could have multiple instances of the same "class" I could see having permanent choices but since each hero is unlocked only once the ability to try out all the different powers, to me, is more fun. I do believe the game has become a little too "end game focused", I would be okay with some of the earlier content being more challenging. I think with the right hero I could sleep my way to level 60 half naked. That being said there is plenty of level 60 content that is fun and challenging, I think GAZ simply took a look at the player base and realized 90% of folks were simply rushing to the end anyway. As far as the upcoming changes I think, for good or bad, most of that has to do with simplifying the meta game, i.e. omega system. It's just too convoluted at the moment IMHO, buying points in skills or stat's is okay, having a system that caps at 10,000 points across several hundred possibilities is too unwieldy, one of the things I am not a fan of in Path of Exile. Changes to the allocation of powers and points etc. I am still on the fence about but willing to give the dev's the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong. Gazillion took a meh game and really worked it into something very good over the past few years so I am hopeful.

Inventory: I agree it can be an unholy mess and understood in the past it was one of the ways to make money on a F2P game. I have come to the realization at this point that there really is no reason to hoard tons of "crap" gear, it will simply drop again and isn't that difficult to obtain. There are, at this point, a few Artifacts and unique drops that are acknowledged by the player base as really good and definitely more rare and worth holding on to, everything else can be sold, used freely as you level or exchanged at the crafter. To top it off I believe you can now purchase more stash space for Eternity Splinters, which Gaz is consistently giving away.

Marvel Heroes may not be the greatest game going but I think it has come along way since it launched and can be a lot of fun to jump in from time to time, hopefully the upcoming changes don't shake things up too much.

[ColdSteel]

The change that allows for free respec of powers was good

I wasn't aware they added that. That's a good change.

As far as the upcoming changes I think, for good or bad, most of that has to do with simplifying the meta game, i.e. omega system.

I haven't ever really messed with the omega system so whatever changes they make there should not have much impact on my characters.

I have come to the realization at this point that there really is no reason to hoard tons of "crap" gear, it will simply drop again and isn't that difficult to obtain.

Yeah, I came to that realization long ago. I only keep artifacts, uniques, costumes, other good stuff. I never keep any crafting stuff because you can grind that as needed. I'm still out of space due to all the uniques and artifacts I have.

To top it off I believe you can now purchase more stash space for Eternity Splinters

Now that's a big deal and something I was completely unaware of. Going to go check that out immediately.

[Max Peck]

AFAIK, you can only buy one stash with splinters. It's better than none, but it isn't like you can grind splinters to buy as many as you need.

[Daehawk]

Other than keeping potions for boosts does anyone think its ok to just delete both my INV and bank? I have no room for a new character items.

[GreenGoo]

I haven't a clue how the omega system works and there is very little in game to guide you as to what your choices mean.

The game is incredibly convoluted as far as currencies, vendors, gear (artifacts, relics and legendaries as just one example of non-intuitive and confusing game mechanics) but it's not that much different from any free to play game that has existed for more than a year. This kind of metagame creep is pretty common as developers struggle to keep customers coming back and paying money.

[GreenGoo]

Another random hero unlock results in Gambit.

He's about my least favourite super hero, although I hear he's not bad in this game. It'll do.

Although I might have to mute the volume. I can't stand that creole accent.

[Max Peck]

Dev Blog 5 - Difficulty Slider
Info on the new difficulty slider (instance-by-instance and global) as well as a change to rare drops (replacing Special/Rare Item Find bonuses with a Bonus Item Find bonus, which gives a guaranteed rare item drop after you fill out a progression bar).

Also, the Dark Dimensions event has ended and a Big 10 event (10 events running concurrently) starts when the servers come back up today.

[Max Peck]

Black Cat Friday -- log in on Friday, 25 Nov, to get a free Black Cat hero.