As one of the first characters available in Gazillion Entertainment’s diablo clone Marvel Heroes Online, the Punisher has been waiting for a rework for a long long time. Similar to Thor mentioned in an article some time before, he had a pretty outdated kit that desperately needed an update.

Marvel Heroes Online originally followed a hero design direction that made them all unique yet extremely unbalanced to each other. This was not a simple thing like a case when one of them is just more powerful than other but rather that some lacked basic things needed for gameplay. Or to be more precise things that became needed for gameplay due to constant updates and changes to the game system and enemies. There were guys without travel powers, vulnerability debuffs to throw on mobs, ability to break crowd control, any burst damage, damage over time abilities. The way things were set some heroes were awesome while others painful.

Nowadays Marvel Heroes Online characters use a 52 Rework formula that ensures that everyone has access these things and some more. Along with the previously mentioned things that some heroes lacked Gazillion introduced signature powers,  a 30 or more second cooldown mini nukes that greatly help with bursting down enemies. Old heroes without this ability have a very slow kill time and are slowly being brought in line with newer ones.

Punisher had an archaic kit that lacked a good travel power, signature, ultimate power that actually does something and burst damage. Crowd control breaker was added some time ago. Instead he relied on his high pain tolerance and damage over time ability stacking. At certain points he had solid high damage builds but these were nipped in the bud every now and then.

The new Rework 52 Punisher addresses some of these things yet does little to provide gameplay variations. While some skills have different names it is still best to just toss a grenade (used to be mine), follow it with a chemical grenade (also used to be a mine), apply flamethrower and then shoot with three round burst or flechette shotgun blast. Yeah the signature is new and can be used in the rotation but the flamethrower now has a cooldown, the shotgun is no longer a free basic attack, same with three round burst. It is actually the same build as before but more complicated with more attacks in the mix and irritating cooldowns.

His ultimate power got changed from a damage buff and self resurrection to a customized remote controlled van that shoots death at everything in sight. No problems here. He even got a nice travel power, sprint.

The middle tree that deals with survival and knives is still barren and useless except for passives and travel. Minigun spec that was advertised as a viable alternative to the dot stacking is clunky. One cooldown ability that uses the Ol’Painless minigun, misses most of the stuff and tons of random single target attacks with no real flow.

In the end the Rework 52 Punisher kills a lot faster than before but the changes he received are mostly random and unasked for while the core problems remain. Reliance on dots, lack of all guns blazing crazy soldier build and weak melee options.

The post Punisher Rework Hits Marvel Heroes With Mixed Reaction appeared first on VR World.

One of Marvel’s most powerful heroes, created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and originally drawn by Jack Kirby, Thor God of Thunder has been with us since his first appearance in Journey into Mystery back in 1962. Faced with the task of creating a hero stronger than the strongest person (DC’s comics Superman) Stan Lee decided to abandon human or alien origins and go straight for godhood. As readers were used to Greek or Roman based heroes he found his inspiration in Norse mythology. Hairy, always drunk and ready for a scrap vikings were perfect archetypes for this new hero. Thus Thor was born.

As with most heroes appearing in Marvel Heroes Online, a Diablo like hack- -and-slash game with Marvel hero skins comic and movies fans were not pleased with his in game version. At times powerful and others reduced to hit and run caster or fighter mage, wow shaman type Thor was considered to be one of the weakest characters the game has to offer. Similar to Punisher he was mostly played by grim dedicated fans determined to max him as much as possible. Some would reach an acceptable gameplay level with him but forums are full of those who just realized that this is not their God of Thunder and gave up on him or play him here and now for nostalgia value.

With the concept of 52 Reviews, many old heroes are finally getting their reworks and getting closer to the new awesome ones that are coming out all the time. 52 Reviews are hit and miss with players as they invalidate many dedicated old school hero builds and concepts but at the same time they give many new shiny toys and options.

Gazillion Entertainment member TheArtofRawr who worked on Thor’s review has introduced a list of changes,  while one of Thor’s supporters and buildmaker SolArmy already has a build for people that want to try the new Thor out.

Time will tell how this new Thor will be accepted by the players but since it has been cooking on test server for quite a while anything less than godlike is unacceptable.

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