Let's talk about Megara

[Kinokan]

So the newest update has been phenomenal and I have been loving Invasion. By far my favorite game mode implemented as of this post. However it shows a glaring fault in Meg’s design that I believe needs to be fixed. Specifically with her white skill.

Whoever Megara is linked to will be unable to fall below 1 HP and Meg takes 25% of her linked ally’s damage. Now often times in Invasion she will be linked to a creep and it will take forever to take her down.

So I asked myself the question of what is causing Meg to be such a thorn in my side. Then I watched a fight more carefully and realized it. Because her linked ally can not fall below 1 HP once they hit 1 HP the linked ally no longer takes damage which in turn means Meg no longer takes damage. So you have essentially an invincible combination right there. So long as her linked ally does not go above 1 HP both of them essentially become immortal. I believe this to be an inherent design flaw but one that also has a simple solution in her green skill.

All it would take to fix this would simply be to have Megara also heal her linked ally. This provides her with more support capabilities as well as fixes what could eventually be a game breaking flaw if not corrected sooner. @Polaris I hope you can pass this on to the balance team or perhaps provide some clarification if this is working as intended. Thank you for your time.

[Drone_IX]

Since i don’t have Meg, I dont know wot 2 say. But sounds like a good Improvement

[Aurora_Veil]

Now that’s some constructive criticism there. True, she’s so far the most innovative hero to date thanks to her unique mechanics.

I think it’s completely reasonable for Meg to also heal the ally she’s linked with. It makes a more direct impact mid-fight, while also preventing her link mechanic from seeming unfair. Not a nerf or a buff, but a sensible change that balances out the fairness of her link mechanic.

Now, before any of y’all say something as simple “just use a hero who can hit the backline”. Just stop right there. There are many heroes who can do that and that is a standard counter to Meg. However, it is unfair to assume everyone has access to these heroes. For one reason or another, it would be sensible to just adjust how the link mechanic works, because either it can be countered just as fairly without making Meg a frustrating hero to deal with.

[Polaris]

Megara still takes damage, even if the hero she’s link to is at 1 HP. The game calculates the 25% damage output from the attacker and applies that to Megara, regardless of the damage done to the linked Hero.

[Champion_David]

So what if she is linked to a creep with normal immunity, does she take the damage or is it ignored cuz the creep is not taking damage?

[Champion_David]

Now, before any of y’all say something as simple “just use a hero who can hit the backline”. Just stop right there. There are many heroes who can do that and that is a standard counter to Meg. However, it is unfair to assume everyone has access to these heroes.

so idk this, but what lvl does Invasion open??

Secondly, this is the solution imo. Unless I am mistaken, I can think of three characters one from each trial team that can hit back line characters:

Blue: Woody. With his lasso, he can bring Megara upfront where she can be quickly destroyed. Then the creep can follow suit.

Yellow: Nick. His lemmings deal damage to every enemy unless they are untargetable, which Megara never is. As a bonus, he is in the backline and thus very unlikely to be charmed by Megara’s active.

Red: Jack-Jack. Several of his skills targetthe back line, and once again, since he is in the back he is very unlikely to be affected by her active.

Other characters that could hit her include:

Violet, Jack Sparrow, Merida, Elsa, Mike, Sulley, Shank, Vanelope, etc.

Regardless of what lvl invasion comes out, if you expect me to believe that you won’t have any of thsse heroes…then idk what to say. You start off with Vanelope!!!

Anyway, I did not make this to insult anyone, just stating facts

[Aurora_Veil]

Oh yeah? Should I expect these specific heroes to be maxed out? Should I expect them to be part of the featured team of the week for Invasion? Should I already be prepared to handle a newly released character at just level 60 (when Invasion becomes available)?

The answer is no. Those aren’t facts, those are unfair assumptions.

The only fair assumption is that all players will max out the characters they care about and that even assumes that all players have access to all characters.

[Champion_David]

Hey, Whatever you level is, I do not think that just Megara will vastly change how much farther you can get.

while the odds of one of these heroes being the featured team is low, the odds that the player has not been upgrading several of these is is very low.

The player gets one free two star hero upon as a reward. I will concede that not every player has every hero, but they should have obtained enough heroes to have at least one that can damage the back line. any player who understands this game, will upgrade some characters that can counter anything. They may even be oblivious to this fact, but they do it anyway. I have no clue what lvl Invasion becomes available, but a loyal player getting on for five minutes each day can still collect a surprising amount of heroes. More if they spend more time.

The more we play invasion, like any other gamemode, the more we realize how important certain characters are. Nick would prolly have been left behind by most players a long time ago if he was not so good at City Watch, and now Invasion. Others also realize that Miguel is extremely viable in other gamemodes and invasion.

This should not be an argument of whether or not the newest players have access to heroes that can kill Megara (and they do in the hero of Vanelope) because the sad teuth is that those lower lvls in invasion are not going to get as far as those with higher lvls.

Take the example of Quorra. Those without Quorra fully maxed and OP wanted her to be nerfed. Those with her maxed and OP, didn’t.

GRAnted, the weaker players may not have all the character choices in order to take out Megara, but if they are working hard in this game, They will have resources to upgrade characters to take out Meg. It may take some time, but players can realize the needed characters to max or get left behind.

Most people know that Moana is extremely powerful, (not OP, just powerful) but with a little study, they can figure out how to beat her. There are many counters. (Tia Dalma, Buzz, Olaf, Jack Sparrow, Scar, DWD, Etc.)

So if your argument is that just because new players cannot counter Megara as she is, she should be made easier to counter, then I cannot agree with it

Now if this is a bug and not how Megara is supposed to work (which does not seem to be the case because of what @polaris said) then it would be completely reasonable for the bug to be fixed.

[Kinokan]

Thank you for the response! I must’ve missed the damage numbers becuase of how fast paced invasion fight can be. My apologies for the inconvenience.

[Pepper]

Putting that way, of course is unfair. But why is this a problem now? Almost all modes suffer from this, if you don’t have x heroes in order to do well.

And Perblue state we are not supose to have everything maxed (even tho not very viable excuse, but acceptable I guess), so you got to work your ways until you can bypass where you are stuck at, in this case Meg as the example. I don’t own every single hero maxed and never will but the options are wide open and from what I’ve seen, Meg so far she’s quite an opponent to deal with, but not unbeatable. You cannot expect every single hero in the future is a problem just because you don’t have the right character when everybody is in the same boat.

If you mainly working with heroes only because you love them from the movies, then you won’t get far.

@Champion_David gave you a few options, if no one have those heroes, unlock them and work with them even if originally wasn’t the plan to progress the character.
The feedback is always welcome and I respect your opinion about Meg, but at this time have to disagree. Don’t think she needs any changes.

[Aurora_Veil]

Let’s make one thing clear. The main argument here is NOT wether or not Meg can be countered. Because I have stated that hero availability is not the issue here. You guys are picking on the WRONG detail. Picking the right heroes to counter Meg does NOT fix the SUPPOSED design flaw. THAT was the point. Big picture, guys.

But apparently, the damage calculation was working as intended, so there wasn’t actually a design flaw.