[UPDATE 1/7/2014: I've edited a few points below, and just wanted to say that the 12/20/2013 patch (patch 2.1) was overall very successful at bringing up the performance of some lesser performing heroes and greatly increasing parity of TTK (time to kill) and TTL (time to live). Ghost Rider is out and quite popular, Nightcrawler is coming late January, and it's been confirmed that Moon Knight is coming after him in late February. Anyone who is curious about the hero roster can check out this very useful thread: https://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/40649/hero-information-guide-release-dates-pricing-design-reviews-etc/p1]

Hey guys, with the recent mentions of Marvel Heroes on the bombcast I figured I'd throw up a thread here for people who are looking for information. I've been playing it since beta, and have spent more time on the boards than is good for me.

I'd be more than happy to try and help with any questions, either in-game or meta-game.

A patch is coming on 12/20/2013 that includes Ghost Rider and a large scale rebalancing of hero DPS. This is intended to bring the less powerful characters up to the level of the best ones, and as such things are sort of in flux at the moment. This following information should still be useful however [EDIT 1/7/2014:This was pretty successful. According to Gazillion all heroes now can have TTKs and TTLs within 20% of each other. The community seems to more or less agree, and while some heroes are still better or worse the gap isn't anywhere near as severe as before. It's far more likely that you will enjoy playing your favorite hero]:

A Quick and dirty guide for a newcomer (and older players who want to reroll):

Starting Marvel Heroes you will be able to chose one free hero. Heroes after that can be purchased with real money or earned through an in-game currency called Eternity Splinters. Heroes no longer drop randomly as hero tokens.

Here's a list of the starter heroes:

200 Eternity Splinter / 450G ($4.50) Heroes:

Black Widow

Hawkeye

Storm

400 Eternity Splinter / 900G ($9.00) Heroes:

Black Panther

Captain America

Colossus

Human Torch

Luke Cage

Punisher

You will choose one of those heroes to start with for free. If you choose one of the three 200ES heroes you will receive 100 eternity splinters for completing the game prologue and 100 splinters for completing the 8th chapter. If you choose a 400 ES hero you will not receive these bonus splinters.[EDIT 1/7/2013:There are a lot of reports from people that they have received bonus splinters from one or both of the missions where a 200 ES hero would have gotten their rewards. This is not working as intended, but if you are very close in your mind between a certain 400 ES hero and the bonus splinters you might want to roll the dice, go with the 400 and hope you get lucky with some illicit bonuses.]

The easiest way to chose a starter is to simply look and see if there's any characters you really like. If there's one you like best, chose it. It's simple.

If there's a hero your really like in the game but they aren't a free hero, then taking a 200 ES hero to get a head start on saving splinters for your specific desired hero isn't a bad choice. Of the 200 ES heroes Storm is a very strong ranged aoe caster option, and what I personally think is the most newbie friendly [EDIT 1/7/2014: Storm also the best kill times of any hero currently. Just a monster. I wouldn't count on that lasting forever, but she still is a fantastic choice of a starter]. Black Widow and Hawkeye are both in sub optimal places right now, but Hawkeye is getting his major rework in January (along with a Kate Bishop costume if that is something that interests you) which basically mean's he'll be getting pulled to the top level, and the recent DPS changes will help both he and BW when they go live.

If you are interested in starting with the 400 ES heroes I would caution against Black Panther and Captain America. Captain America is in a sorry state currently, although his review is coming in January along with the new Winter Soldier movie and he'll be getting large upgrades. Black Panther is a very interesting and capable hero, but he's fairly atypical and might not be the easiest to start with. He is capable of being incredibly powerful however.

Punisher and Torch sound like they will be two of the highest damage ranged characters after the 12/20 patch. Punisher is a bit slower and more defensive, Torch is faster and spits out aoe fire all over the place. Colossus and Luke Cage are both tanky melee damage dealers who have recently had their reviews and are very powerful. Cage has "pets" (technically they are the Heroes For Hire, but c'mon they are pets) that he uses to help support him in combat, and Colossus is highly durable and can deal a ton of damage. They are also two of the most powerful characters in PvP at the moment if that sort of thing interests you.

Splinters tend to drop between once every 6 and once every 8 minutes, depending on some factors. In general if you are focused on getting splinter drops you should be able to manage 10 an hour. You can then purchase heroes at a price level of 200 ES, 400 ES, or 600 ES (1350G, $13.50).

A strong option for new players however is to purchase a random hero box for 175 splinters. This box has an exactly even chance of containing ANY hero in the game, regardless of if you own them or their price tier. You are as likely to get a Storm token as an Iron Man token. If you get the token of a hero you already have you can use it to upgrade your character's Ultimate ability, a long cooldown incredibly powerful power.

What this means is the less heroes you own the more advantageous using the random box is. If there is a specific hero you have to have and you don't want to spend money, save the splinters. If there are heroes you hate so much you'd be furious if you get them, don't buy random. Otherwise it's a good way to beef up your roster early on.

As I said, any questions feel free to ask. The game has improved leaps and bounds, and the developers are incredibly accessible and involved with the community. Gazillion has sometimes rushed content too quickly and that's lead to some bugs/balance issues, but if they are guilty of something it's wanting to over deliver, which erring on the side of the playerbase's interest usually.

Message me or respond to this thread if I can help out in any way!

I paid for Rocket Raccoon and he shoots stuff like a mothertrucker. Only played a few hours but its pretty fun.

RR was the first thing I bought in the game as well. He's had a bit of a rough time for a bit now, but he's getting some really big buffs on 12/20 and I'm excited about his upcoming rework.

@darknessmyoldfriend: Thanks for all the info, dude. I'm going to check out the game tonight since I was a huge fan of Ultimate Alliance and this looks pretty similar to that.

I was surprised to see it's nearly a 12gb download, though.

I need to come back, haven't played since August. It's good, I love attention to detail in the moves feeling the difference between Iron man and Spider- Man. And then all the fan service, like finding a AIM dude kidnapping a Nobel Peace Prize judge only to debate about getting award for a death ray.

@darknessmyoldfriend: Does it still play the same as it did at launch? I slogged through the game then and was absolutely disgusted with the gameplay by the end. It was boring, repetitive, and waaaaaaay too hard for someone who wanted to play alone. I keep hearing all these people talking about it lately and wonder if we even played the same game, as I had what I would categorize as my worst ARPG experience to date with Marvel Heroes.

I suppose you would have to try playing it again to know for sure. Who was your starter hero? That could have had a large impact on your starting experience. I know the original iteration of Scarlet Witch was a nightmare for me, but when I got Storm from my first random box I tore through the content.

There've been some fairly severe re-balancing patches to the game - a defensive one a while back and a damage one fairly recently - that have flattened out the TTL and TTK of the heroes a good bit. There was also a substantial XP re-balancing if you simply were not staying up to level with the content.

I played and greatly enjoyed it since open beta so I definitely didn't have the same experience as you. I'll say that there are far more complaints about the game being too easy over being too hard.

If I were in your shoes I might make a new account and start all the way over. Are there any starter heroes that appeal to you? I'd be happy to answer specific questions about any of them.

@darknessmyoldfriend: I did play as Scarlet Witch, and to clarify, I only really thought the boss fights were fucked hard. I remember having to run in over and over on a few of them, grinding a few points of damage from the boss before dying and doing it all over again.

My biggest complaint was really that it felt lifeless. The gear was boring and didn't seem to help much, the trees were very simple and packed with seemingly useless moves (playing only one hero, admittedly), and enemy variety was terrible. I always hit a point with ARPGs where I just feel like I'm slogging through it, but that feeling came MUCH faster in Marvel Heroes than any other game of its type I've ever played.

I guess starting a new game with it really is the best way to know for sure; just not sure I want to spend the time to do so. Have they changed the starter heroes? I didn't really care for any of the original starter heroes.

Yep, I go over them in the above post. What's your preferred playstyle?

(And yeah, Scarlet witch was brutal for a while. She's quite good now but is still higher degree of difficulty to solo until somewhere in her teens where she gets some great CC.)

@darknessmyoldfriend: I tend to pick female characters over any specific playstyle. Most games, such as this one (only 20% of the roster being female kinda sucks when they have plenty of good options to choose from), don't often have a diverse selection of female characters, so I'm often forced into boring characters. In ARPGs, I really just enjoy characters that take a bit of skill to play but are good on their own. Ranged characters probably get preference over melee, but I really don't care THAT much.

@wemibelec90:

I... what happened to the post I just did?

Sad sad face.

Ok, to recap:

You might want to stick with Scarlet Witch, she requires smart play but she can be incredibly powerful. She's also not available as a starter any longer. Here's a potential leveling build: http://marvelbase.com/builds/generator/scarlet-witch#2v2M2vKKvMvv22vvvv72/0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0

The real gem compared to when you last played her is a teleport that you get at level one. It's a one point wonder but it's a hell of a wonder. She's still squishy, but after a while you will have a fear aura (shake in terror fear, not run everywhere and pull mobs fear), an aoe snare, an aoe confuse, and an aoe life leach.

Storm is also a great option, she's an aoe monster glass cannon with fantastic damage. Here's how I'd level her at this point in the game: http://marvelbase.com/builds/generator/storm#v22M2KvvvvKvvvK2K2p2/0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0

I'm afraid this is a lot shorter than the last response I typed, but the forums ate it. Either way I think you might find the game is worth your time by now.

@darknessmyoldfriend: Maybe I'll give it a shot when I have some free time. Thanks for all the info!

@wemibelec90: I'm pretty new to the game and am playing as Iron Man right now, but all of the other characters I want to try are females. Storm and Scarlet Witch seem pretty bad ass. Psylocke is coming in a few months as well as Domino, She-Hulk, and Sue Richards.

She-Hulk is probably further out than the others you are mentioning. Psylocke and Sue Richards should be in 2014, Domino has been mentioned as 2015, and She-Hulk is on the "we'd like to put her in at some point" list.

I started playing this last night, what is the deal with the achievement panel?

Seems like it's some sort of cross character buff system, but I couldn't really figure out what was going on with it. Should I be sticking to one character or is there a good reason to flip between all of them?

I originally started shortly after it came out, got to level 2. Apparently I chose Storm yet have Hawk Eye as well (think I got him for killing green goblin at the time?).

I started again today and am progressing through, just wondering if you know if I'll get the 100 splinters for beating Chapter 8 or not?

Achievements aren't in yet (they have a lock icon on the tab). The panel you're looking at is called synergies. When you get heroes to level 25 and to level 50 they unlock bonuses which can be applied to any of your other heroes. You can apply ten bonuses at a time. You can see a list of them here (scroll down); http://marvelheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Hero_Synergy_System

I just hopped back into the game today for the first time in a few months and was wondering what the deal was with those too. Sounds clever, kind of like Borderlands 2's way of allowing progression through playing multiple characters.

I've been slowly getting myself back into the game, I ended up getting hyped up around the end of the beta, bought the Rocket Raccoon pack and then burned out near release.

Since then though I've heard nothing but good about the game and its improvements, and so far all of the things i've heard are very true.

I haven't really found a character that i've wanted to stick with yet, normally I prefer the barbarian/warrior-esque characters for these style of games (Ranged controls for characters just feels weird to me, idk) so i've been swapping between Thing and RR since I own him, but i've contemplated grabbing Colossus or Luke Cage. By any chance, do either of them have a cleave attack? From what i've seen, Cage seems cool with the melee summoning, and Colossus just seems immovable by definition, so it's gonna be a hard choice lol.

@loremiser:

Not exactly a cleave, but many of the heroes melee attacks affect cones in front of them, even basic spiritless attacks. The width of the cone and how far they extend can vary, but very often if you are hitting a mob you are hitting the mob next to him as well. Colossus and Cage both are excellent and very resilient heroes. Both are essentially brawlers, with Cage having a pet-heavy tree and better single target dps, while Colossus has a couple temporary pets and far more AOE options than Cage. If you want a barbarian-esque melee monster to crush everything near you both are really good calls. Colossus (Demolition Stomp unlocks at level 3 and is an trash clearing monster) might be a bit closer to that archtype than Cage, but if you feel like having a bit of a twist on it with a persistent pet then Cage might be the choice for you (Iron Fist, available at level 1, has the ability to toss heals at you or your party).

@mijati:

You will get the 100 splinters for completing chapter 8 still if you didn't before.

@kidavenger:

Like @Rolyatkcinmai said, those are synergies, and the achievements are still incoming. Synergies got explained pretty well by other posters.

I played when the game was released but I didn't enjoy Storm. I want to play as a hero I care about so I've decided either Hulk or Spiderman.

Will I enjoy the game solo? Should I wait for an upcoming sale before buying a hero? How can I get my head around all the new currencies and things they've added?

Also, are the two characters I mentioned fun? Hulk looks like fun for just smashing through the game.

@alistercat: With the exception of areas where you queue up for groups like the old Limbo and X-Defense, I solo completely. I have a lot of fun and you can do everything except for X-Defense and the new raid solo and still feel effective. The best way to level up in the game is to do Legendary Quests, and all of them are soloable.

Both are strong choices with very different play styles. With Hulk you will be almost entirely melee. Generally jumping into the middle of a group of enemies and start punching. Spider-Man has a few more options since he can go melee or ranged. I'm not sure how much experience you have with the game, but you might want to check out these videos for Hulk and Spider-Man. You can probably ignore the first half of the videos since they are build theory, but the second half shows the characters in action and what you can expect from each.

Hey how's Invisible Woman? Was looking to pick her up, but was torn between her and Jean Grey.

@severepapercut said:

I haven't played Sue, but she generally seems pretty polarizing, judging from the in-game chat. Some people think she's great, but a number of people say she's pretty disappointing. Jean, on the other hand, doesn't get talked about a lot, but people generally say she's okay. I've played her, and she's not my favorite (I tend to enjoy "magic" users, so to speak, a lot less than other types, keep in mind) but with the right build she's certainly effective. (Only in Phoenix form, though. Her mental build is not considered to be particularly effective.)

It's also worth keeping in mind that Jean will be receiving her "52 review" this summer, which means they'll be tweaking her abilities and tuning/balancing her, so she might be even better within a couple of months.