FoxNext works very hard to maintain the importance of MSF over other hero collector games, but unfortunately I don't think they are on the right track. MSF is almost 2 years old and it is natural for the game to start losing the player's database if there is nothing new on the table. I don't believe FoxNext understands what it needs to do to breathe new life into the game and find the lost players, as they don't really add anything new in this update. Here is the list of changes made in this update:
- The Alliance War: New War Results button displays the latest war results from the Alliance War screen when a war is not active.
- Five new playable characters: Ghost Rider, Elsa Bloodstone, Hela, Stryfe and Mister Sinister.
- Limited Time Traits: Tick or Treat and Los Muertos
- Elsa Bloodstone Events Campaign
- Portrait mode view is now available for Leaderboard, Saved Teams, and the Alliance War Participation Leaderboard.
- New mid remain last 7
- Team animations no longer cause performance issues and visuals have been restored
- Summoned characters now spawn without delay.
- Some of the combat effects weren't playing. Now the audio is playing fine.
- Fixed: Blitz points displayed before battle did not match point awarded after battle.
- SHIELD Patch Medic's missing emergency treatment ability text.
- Important correction: Graviton no longer uses Magneto's animation after it is reactivated.
As you can see, the only real changes are the introduction of new heroes (as in all updates) and the opening of a new permanent Ultimus 7 Raid.
The current pace of bringing new heroes into the game is amazing and only whales will enjoy this strategy as regular players just can't keep up and have to decide which heroes they will definitely drop in order to maximize the ones that remain. This was not the case in the first year of Marvel Strike Force and I feel like all new things are made just for P2w players. Hopefully FoxNext will realize at some point that once ordinary gamers leave the game, the whales will have no motivation to play and that will happen soon if they don't change strategy.
For example, most alliances had mastered the Ultimus 6 Raid for a long time and they were all eager to start Ultimus 7. But the current Ultimus 7 is not the same. We all played Ultimus 7 two months ago, when Legion of Cabal and Pants of Hulk split up. the first place to clear the raid first. Ultimus 7 released in the latest patch is 50% harder than the Ultimus 7 we all expected and played. I am in a relaxed and fully populated alliance with an average collecting power of 3,7 million and we eliminated 66% of Ultimus 7 2 months ago. Today, after using all the heals, we were only able to free 43% of the Alliance members, who opened Ultron and thought they were ready for the new Raid. I'm not saying much stronger alliances don't exist, but I'm wondering if a new player has any interest in starting this game since every member of my alliance has been logging in every day for at least 18 months and we are not even close to clearing the new raid.
I really love this game and I'm not happy to criticize it, but I think it's the only way to get to FoxNext and explain to them that the game will die if they don't do things differently.
Enough about the bad stuff, let's talk about something nicer, let's talk about new heroes.
In this update 5 new heroes are introduced, but only 3 - Ghost Rider, Elsa Bloodstone and Hela can currently be seen in the roster. Stryfe and Mister Sinister Sinister will be coming in the next few weeks.
Ghost Rider is for sure a top hero. He is the much stronger version of Pyro and we all know Pyro can be very dangerous. Ghost Rider has incredible damage and he can use his ultimate assassin / piercing for free whenever an ally dies, which means Ghost Rider has to be killed first if you don't want him to completely destroy your team during the fight. Ghost Rider has an obvious synergy with Supernatural Heroes, but it can be used in other combinations as well. It's currently available through Deals & Milestones, which means you'll have to buy it for $ 100 if you want to see it on your list immediately.
Elsa Bloodstone is another supernatural hero. When you know that the other supernatural heroes are Scarlet Witch, Mordo, and Doctor Strange, you quickly realize that these heroes are now going to play an important role in the Alliance War, as they never had a major synergy. Elsa is a blaster that harasses enemies with ever heavier damage and is particularly effective against wounded enemies and enemies that dodge or are forgotten by Elsa's ally. Elsa's full potential can only be achieved in a full Supernatural squad and that's why she shouldn't be seen as a top hero. Elsa will be available through the Elsa Bloodstone Events Campaign.
Hela is a new Asgardian Controller. She has a very interesting skill set. You could say that its game mechanics are unlike anything we've seen so far. In short, she prevents enemies from using Deathproof, she applies Disrupted, and she can spread up to 4 negative effects from the primary target to the rest of the opposing team, but what really sets her apart from other Heroes is his invocation. She summons undead Asgardians who are truly wicked and who can hardly be wiped from the battlefield while Hela is alive. This is because she summons another undead whenever a summoned undead dies. Having a constant Summon on the battlefield that helps Hela and can deal some serious damage is something that is sure to annoy all players. However, as long as there are only 3 Asgardians in the game and one of them is current Thor, Hela's importance in the game will be minimal. How to get Hela is unclear at this time.
Stryfe and Mister Sinister are not yet visible on our list but I will give you some unofficial data.
Stryfe is a very powerful mutant villain who will be able to apply ability block to primary and adjacent targets and be subject to deflection and barrier when he taunts. With his basic skills, he will be able to clean up the taunt from the enemy and apply the taunt on himself, which means he will be the Protector with the longest taunt in the game. a valuable asset to Mutant Villains, paired with Mister Sinister and those who have lost their place on Meta teams like Pyro, Sabretooth and Mystique.
Mister Sinister is another mutant villain who has great synergy with characters with a new Marauder trait. These characters are Mystique and Sabretooth and it is obvious that we will have another highly usable team made up of Stryfe, Mister Sinister, Mystique, Sabretooth and maybe Pyro. Mr. Sinister will be able to clone some of his allies who will be able to use all skills as a cloned ally but whose stats will change with Mr. Sinister's stats. He'll also be able to transfer all of Mystique's positive effects to all Mutant allies and heal the entire team for a decent amount of health. His base skill will be particularly strong, as his damage will vary depending on the number of Marauder allies and will always be assisted by Clone and Marauder allies. Mr. Sinister will be particularly effective in the Alliance War Defense, where he will grant increased power and energy to all allies of the Marauders.
As you can see, all of the new heroes have a role to play so that some of the heroes that are no longer interesting (Scarlet Witch, Mordo, Doctor Strange, Mystique, Sabretooth) become usable again. I have to say that's good, but I don't think a lot of players will be able to maximize all of these characters until FoxNext introduces us to some bigger new heroes if they keep that pace of new toon releases.
After the last update I was fully predicting which new heroes would clash, but today I'm going to avoid further predictions so that I can suggest FoxNext release a new campaign to create characters like Human Torch, for example, which is not closable at the moment. That would be the right direction if they want to keep the game alive. But, frankly speaking, this is just the first step, as Marvel Strike Force needs a whole new game segment that will bring back players who are rightfully bored with the game and repetitive, boring battles.
I hope someone will listen to reason and see the big picture before it's too late. Until then, good luck Heroes and may the RNG be with you.
