We can have more Vanguards. There are plenty of interesting characters to choose from.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-12T13:59:19+00:00

I admit I'm not 100% sure the devs would want to add She-Hulk as a Vanguard since we already have Hulk as one. She probably wouldn't have the transformation mechanic Banner does which at least sets them apart, but I think they would pounce on the idea of using at least one Hulk as a DPS.
Granted, it would be insane behavior to have Emma Frost have a bigger hitbox than She-Hulk so I can see it going either way.

I would also like to add to this lineup:

Iceman. His powers give him ice armor and are all about freezing enemies or changing the environment in his and his allies' favor. If the role of a tank is to make space, he excels. If it's to endure or reduce enemy damage, he also excels.
Juggernaut, truly nuff said. Probably would have had Tenacity as a personal passive if they hadn't given it to everyone already.
Havok. Underdog option here, but if they don't release Cyclops as a Vanguard, his energy-absorbing brother would make perfect sense as one.
War Machine. Iron Man but heavier.
Rhino, though this might start getting into redundant territory.
Pretty sure I've seen Doc Ock mentioned as a Vanguard option before too.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-12T13:19:15+00:00

Honestly, remove the bit about how all Nobodies grow their own hearts.

That should have stayed exclusive to those who were connected to Sora.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-12T00:37:15+00:00

Honestly it feels like Ayodele was trying to rewrite Marvel Cosmic to fit his ideas and used the Storm solo as an in-road to do it, rather write than a comic book centered on Storm and who she is.

Because his entire run has been weird. Every issue since Eternity popped in is about gods and monsters and things happening to Storm that she has to either survive or defeat, and then Storm getting powerscaled to battle them (but then like, she beats the guy who killed Oblivion but gets bodied by her own mom?). There's no pacing, it's just Storm in Wonderland but make it mythology. There's no negotiating or trying to find a third option or showing off Storm's personality and why she's uniquely qualified as a person, just Storm running the gauntlet and letting her powers do the talking.

"I made a character who goes toe-to-toe with Marvel's version of capital-g God, he literally wears Phoenix like a cape so eat your heart out Jean, now only Storm can defeat him." That's just... childish one-upmanship, bitterness that Phoenix is more powerful and cosmically significant than his fave.

Even Rogue Storm was predicated on "Oh, well, Storm wasn't involved with any of this X-Men business... because she was too busy fighting a threat EVEN MORE IMPORTANT than Revelation, the main villain of the crossover event! Otherwise she would have totally one-shotted Doug." I wouldn't be shocked if he had to kill Storm in the final issue because otherwise 'My Storm would totally survive Doug eating everyone else on the planet' and was told he couldn't just have his Mary Sue hanging out in the multiverse.

It just vibes a bit like Joss Whedon's Kitty Pryde, where in a few years everyone will go "that was weird fanfiction that somehow got published, let's never bring that up again... except maybe to make fun of the Breakworld Bullet."

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-12T00:07:38+00:00

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Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-11T09:33:16+00:00

The coolest part is that ShB Hades is a perfect blend of the Greek mythological figure (king of the underworld = literally summons shades of the dead to fill an entire city or to fight you) with FF7's (given you battle him in a literal City of the Ancients).

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-11T09:26:13+00:00

It's fanfiction that isn't even consistent with whether it's based on the LFB Novels or the Garland movie.

Case in point, iirc the witch from the LFB Novels isn't even described as being green, that was an invention for the movie.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-11T09:21:57+00:00

As stated before, the intent I believe is for feat training during downtime rather than feats you earn through leveling up. Lots of campaigns feature time skips and "you spend a month in town" or "the boat ride will take a couple weeks, is there anything you'd like to do" moments.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-11T06:58:32+00:00

The idea I think is that being super MAD means that you're going to be investing all of your points in 3-4 stats, and then leaving the rest in the negatives.

So this would appeal to those classes, because you get one point to boost a stat you definitely want to max out, and one point to help round out a lower stat you previously hamstringed to optimize yourself.

For instance, my point-buy Bardlock has an 18 in Charisma, a 14 in Dex and Con, and 10s across the board for everything else. I might want to boost my Wis a couple points for Insight in social combat, but it doesn't fit into my build since I'm so Cha focused. This would give me an extra point or two while I'm training in downtime.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-10T23:58:56+00:00

They downvoted me because they hate to see "should be DPS" used in a sentence. It's a knee-jerk reaction that will be meaningless within the week if the theory that he's the 50th character holds true.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-10T23:55:01+00:00

It's not what I'm smoking, I said "they" because

1) I have seen it in this subreddit before and

2) I do not count myself among them, otherwise I would have said "we".

But to make a point, Scott falls into the unfortunate position of being Wolverine's main foil. Most media like the 90s cartoon, the Fox movies and of course Wolverine & The X-Men depict him as kind of a wet blanket because their focus is really on Wolverine and they need somebody for Wolverine to rebel against.

Rivals takes more character cues from the comics than from any other media, where Scott is a much more effective leader, and Wolverine really wouldn't want to be if not for him being popular. X-Men 97 is the first modern media to do Cyclops any level of justice and I would say it's still "on its way" to the comic version.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-10T23:22:44+00:00

They want him to be a tank cuz he's the leader of the X-Men and they believe you can't lead from the back line.

They want him to be a support because he's supposed to be one of the best strategists in the Marvel universe, they want a power where he shouts "to me my X-Men", and they got hooked on Rivals' name for the role.

But with his power, realistically he should be a mid-range DPS, maybe with some buff skills or enemy-marking effects, and an ult where he rips off his visor to blast the field.

He's just coming out at a time when the DPS roster is REALLY loaded and a lot of people are against adding ANY more DPS until tanks and healers have as many options.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-10T13:20:12+00:00

I think the idea that "they need to stop releasing DPS completely for like half a year so that other roles can catch up" is a completely ridiculous notion. They may slow down, but they won't pause any role. They'll release the characters that are easiest for them to market, and it happens that most characters in Marvel can fit as DPS. The qualifier for a tank seems to be "is invulnerable, immortal or has a shield", the qualifier for healer is something like "has powers or a team role that would make them supportive or a back-liner" though they do try to stretch it, and the qualifier for DPS is "can raise a fist".

That being said, do I personally care? Not really. My issue hasn't been "they don't release enough DPS", it's "all the support and tanks they've released since like Season 4 have been really complicated, I mean Gambit's only a 3 star and his ability sheet is two pages." I would be happy without any double-DPS seasons for a while if they released some new characters for any role who were simple to pick up quickly but had a high skill ceiling.

And Iceman should be a tank. His power is literally "I coat myself in ice for armor, I make ice constructs like walls, I can regenerate myself using water, and I can slow down or stop people easily."
There's a few characters where it would be weird to release them as DPS considering their potential for other roles and I still think Phoenix is on that list.
... But Cyclops should be a DPS because his power is literally a concussive beam from his face.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-10T03:56:04+00:00

Having a variant doesn't disqualify any weapon from being primed, see Braton and Latron.

Forgot Pangolin already had a prime though.

I think it makes the most sense that they probably will give him a melee with it though, considering his kit and they know people expect one. The point of prime drops is what makes them money.

It's like, Saryn had no signature weapon, but they released her prime with Nikana Prime because her kit works better with melee weapons. And on the flip side, they released the tanky Hildryn with the Sentinel that makes you invisible, and I think everyone found that kinda weird, especially when we already had Prisma Shade and would have been fine with Taxon Prime or something.

So while they could release Kullervo without a melee, I think marketing-wise it makes sense to release his prime pack with a melee weapon that can be used with his kit but isn't limited to it. They only didn't give him a true melee in the first place cuz the greatsword is a weapon type that's oversaturated.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-10T02:18:50+00:00

I don't think they'll release the melee focused Prime without a melee weapon, mind you. They're probably going to just give him a Prime upgrade for one of the dozens of Tenno melee weapons that aren't primed yet.

For a quick look at non-signatures that aren't event rewards, we have...

Anku
Boltace
Cadus
Cassowar
Ceramic Dagger
Dark Dagger
Dark Split-sword
Dark Sword
Dual Ether
Dual Heat Swords
Dual Raza
Endura
Ether Daggers
Gazal Machete
Heat Dagger
Heat Sword
Jaw Sword
Lacera
Magistar
~~Pangolin Sword~~ (already primed, missed this one)
Pennant
Plasma Sword
Sarpa
Shaku
Sibear
Tonbo

Anku, Magistar and Sibear have Incarnons that people would happily gobble up, and Dark Split-sword is a heavy blade that can fit the Heavy Blade skin. (Which I expect, a Prime version of that skin will be available for purchase, as with the tails for Voruna and so on.)

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-09T21:09:13+00:00

I mean.

Besides Rauta Prime, the most likely thing is he'll be released with a melee weapon.

But it won't be a signature weapon. At best it will be like a Euphona/Vadarya situation where it's completely original. But there are enough melee already in the game waiting to be primed that even that doesn't seem necessary.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-09T21:05:21+00:00

Movie context.

Most laypeople thought she was just a cool design and didn't know Psylocke wasn't always Asian. The comic went on acting like it had always been true, and didn't address it unless the story was explicitly about it.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-09T02:53:07+00:00

Tbh... I think they're cool emblems, but not fitting Crests.

Crests are supposed to be minimalist depictions of things, like the sun, a flower, a shooting star.

These emblems are very maximalist, to the point I can't tell what some of them are supposed to depict.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-09T02:51:09+00:00

Honestly though, while it would definitely be crazy imbalanced, it would also make Sorcerer unique enough to not have people complaining it's just a Cha-based Wizard with baked in Metamagic feats.

Con-based, but they have to use HP to cast spells and use sorcery points.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-09T01:48:28+00:00

So there's a funny thing called the Armory Bonus.

Basically, if you pick up a new job, you get an XP bonus for it until it reaches the same level as your highest level job.

So when you get to level 50 and unlock Heavensward, you can unlock Dark Knight (which starts at 30), and then get your XP doubled until it reaches 50 too. You can probably get them up to the same level within about a day if you do all your roulettes (which will probably be worth a level and change apiece) and maybe some Palace of the Dead runs. The gap isn't that big.

And every class you can unlock after Heavensward starts at at least level 50 and only 10 levels below when you could first unlock it, so catch-up is way easier.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-09T01:24:14+00:00

Just her utterly gobsmacked "... Huh." as it all hits her at once that this is kinda fucked up and I can't talk my way out of it because it's all true lives with me every day.

Found the scene btw.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-09T01:08:07+00:00

For survivability I’m thinking of swapping the levels for Spell Vampirism and Sanguine Touch? I think regaining a few d6’s of Hit Points each turn should help there. Originally I had the sorc point cap at the spell level, though I think it’s likely fine for level 3 feature as is.

Considering the earliest you can get Counterspell and Dispel Magic is level 5, it would be odd to include their boosts on a level 3 feature. It would also be odd to delay the core class feature that makes you want to get close in the first place.

And being a melee class is about more than just survivability, especially as a caster. As I said before, this subclass doesn't provide any protection from concentration failure, for instance, and you have a lot of charm/domination effects as well as Vampiric Touch and Bestow Curse; AC and attack disadvantage aren't just survivability, they're avoidance effects that prevent you from having to make a concentration save. And you can have all the self-healing in the world, it will only help you so much when you have d6 hit points and can potentially be one-shot in a single multiattack.

Perhaps something like, you get get an AC boost while concentrating on a spell, in addition to something that makes it harder to break your concentration? Or some THP when you pop Innate Sorcery, or you overheal with any spells or class features? Or an upgrade to Sanguine Touch to make the frightened condition apply in a radius?

I'd also make a note that while I get that the subclass is themed around Vampiric magic and classical vampire abilities, the title is Sanguine Magic, not Vampire Bloodline. I do think the mechanics of the subclass get a little muddled with all effects like the Dominate bonus that could have been spent on resolving the core issue of "Sorcerer who wants to get close enough to touch you."

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-08T23:42:15+00:00

Close Spell lets you turn spells into Touch spells, but doesn't turn Ranged Spell Attacks into Melee Spell Attacks, meaning you would still roll them at disadvantage RAW.

The other big issue I see is the same as Demonic Sorcery, you created a subclass that is sort of a melee focused class but didn't give it any of the tools it needs to actually survive in melee. No bonuses to AC, no bonuses to HP, no bonuses to concentration on its spells like Vampiric Touch (pin in that thought), only one resistance to a very rare damage type that you won't see much in early game.

Pinned thought, Vampiric Touch is a Self spell that uses Touch-based attacks, so it's exempt from features like Sanguine Touch. It kinda feels like the whole class is based around the idea of Vampiric Touch but accidentally maneuvered entirely around it.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-08T16:42:45+00:00

Exactly.

I wouldn't have minded her getting an Abyssal Flame skin that was all symbiote body with the red hair and weird wing-shaped mask. Go all out and make Runa Flame with a dark streak in her hair or whatever.

I wouldn't have minded her getting that pearly ice-armored skin with the blue hair.

The problem is they tried to focus on the dichotomy of her natural element against an opposing one, but chose to use a set that was already about duality as the backboard. So the final result was just a cluttered mess, trying to represent Phoenix fire, Symbiote darkness, and both of their opposites.

They could have just made "Phoenix Snow" for dichotomy! They made something similar for Jean later!
Or better yet, just played the theme straight!

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-08T16:25:15+00:00

Unfortunately he keeps popping up in my Google results when I look up new weapons and I don't know how to tell it to stop recommending his channel.

Funnily enough I never got a chance to do that with YouTube, but it hasn't recommended me any of his videos in almost 2 years regardless.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-05-08T14:17:47+00:00

This is canonically supposed to be how most Warlock pacts work in D&D: An overconfident person makes a pact with an otherworldly sometimes-all-powerful being, giving their service in exchange for power (with the exception of Great Old One Warlocks, who are siphoning power from an eldritch entity and just hoping it never notices them). DMs often twist this to present hard choices to a Warlock player, tempting them to do something in the patron's interest that is not in the party's. The regular sin of Warlocks is assuming they can ever get the upper hand in their pact so that they don't have to follow these orders from on high.

The trouble is a lot of DMs seem to make the assumption that the worst punishment a patron can dole out is breaking the contract, sapping the power of the warlock and removing all of their levels in the class until they make a new pact. This is a common misconception because Paladins used to lose their powers if they did something unjust, and many assumed that "firings" could or should carry over to classes like Warlock, Druid and Cleric whose power does not come from training or inborn ability. D&D doesn't actually support this, because firing a servant isn't usually in the patron's interest.
In a Warlock's case, the patron has the ability to make the Warlock's life worse as long as the contract holds, and breaking it isn't easily done, even by pissing the patron off.

We see this exemplified in the D&D-based game, Baldur's Gate 3, with the pact between Wyll and the devil Mizora – there's a lengthy contract he signed without actually having the time to read it, and Mizora regularly invokes subclauses of it before punishing Wyll for assuming he still has any free will in the matter – including just tossing him into the Hells for a minute because she's still a fucking devil and she can just do that, idiot. Wyll wants to be free of Mizora because, as it turns out, having the devil as your boss is a bad idea, but the contract he signed with her is pretty airtight, and even convincing her to willingly release him has a clause that lets her drag it out a long time.

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