Mid-Season Ch-ch-changes

Hello everyone,

Hopefully Season 9 is treating you well!  I know that a lot of people have expressed some frustration at the rating requirements, but I've found that I'm personally edging ever closer to that 1550 mark as the days go on.

Today, we're going to talk about the changes that Playdom rolled out on the 5th.  There's a new 64 gold item that has incredibly synergy with Sinister Scepter, Warbringer Axe has had major changes made, several heroes (Thor, Sif, and Phoenix) had their buffing attacks changed to Quick Actions, Cyclops' Natural Leader now works properly, and the biggest change:  Rescue has had significant balancing changes made.

Let's start with talking about the new stuff!

Sorcerous Scepter

The item in question is Sorcerous Scepter, intended as a complimentary weapon to Sinister Scepter.  It has a Ground Magic attack that hits all enemies, doesn't break Phased, is Stealthy, and applies the Pain debuff (like Shatterstar) that increased the damage that character takes by 8, and stacks up to three times.  It has a chance to counterattack.  What's not to like?

Well, for starters, it's a Ground attack.  While the changes to Rescue (see below) might reduce her frequency, there are already several top tier Flying characters that many of you likely encounter with some frequency that make this attack less relevant.  Magneto, War Machine, Phoenix (see below) and Rescue are all still going to be common at higher tiers of play, and all of them can ignore this attack with ease.  That doesn't mean you don't want to use this item when combined with Sinister Scepter, as any way to continue to apply pressure while Phased is excellent, but it's worth keeping in mind.

On to the changes to heroes!

Heroes

Rescue

Rescue has been something of a scourge of upper tier PVP, removing buffs, attacking, and keepin' the Blaster man down with her omnipresence.  In response, Playdom has changed several things about her, and as a result it's less of a groan inducing moment when you see her across the battlefield from you.

1. Reconstruction Matrix no longer removes DOTs, and has had its healing reduced slightly.  This is coupled with a bugfix that makes it correctly apply to the entire party when the AI uses it.  Ultimately, this means that Rescue can no longer completely invalidate DOT-based teams, although she still has Panacea Response to remove those debuffs.
2. Panacea Response now has only a 70% chance to remove a debuff instead of 100%.  This change means that sometimes, Emma will be able to stick that Mental Anguish and pop Rescue a new one, or your Wolverine team will continue to have its bleeds up.  Perhaps Shield Breaker won't be removed.  Either way, this change isn't hugely significant, as I've fought Rescue a few times and found that 70% chance of removal to mean that you don't want to rely on her not removing buffs.  Still, if you're desperate, you can now try to stick things through Panacea Response, where that was not the case before.
3. Magnetic Attraction does not magnetize attacks she could not protect against.  This means that stealthy attacks or psychic attacks (like those from phoenix or black widow) are much better now against Rescue, and infiltrators now have a fighting chance against her, even if she can disable their counterattacks.

All in all, this still leaves Rescue in the position she was in before:  An excellent support character.  What it does do, however, is leave some cracks in the armor that weren't there before.

Phoenix (Thor and Sif)

JEAAAANN!!! has had only one change made, but it might be more significant than all the changes above.  Her Mind Link is now a quick action.  That dramatically improves her on defense, because one of the problems was that she would often just Mind Link her turns away and leave kills on the table.  No longer!  Now she can set your team up, and continue to apply pressure.

I expect this to lead to a number of Phoenix teams being significantly better on both defense and offense.  Expect to fight her, and learn to beat her, because she's very strong now.

Thor and Sif also had their buff-applying attacks made into Quick actions, but I don't expect that it will dramatically increase their appearance in PVP.  It could potentially increase the number of Thors that people use on offense, but it's fairly hard to account for that, and he will still be a marginal defensive choice.

Cyclops

The counterpart to Jean!  But in all seriousness, he had his Natural Leader buff fixed, and it procs fairly frequently now, making him even better than he was before.  Apparently the AI is also improved, but I have yet to fight him to see how.

Hulk

Hulk now smashes with dramatically increased efficiency.  Changes to the Warbound buff makes World War Hulk better, he now gains his own buff, and Hulk now Hulk Up!s on every turn, making him a force to be reckoned with.  You could theoretically combine him with Jean and turn him into an unstoppable green murder machine.  This change was much needed, as Hulk was definitely low on the totem pole for a 90cp character.

These changes I believe to be the major ones, although there are more minor changes that I haven't discussed here.  Feel free to discuss them in the comments, and I will be happy to respond with my thoughts on them.