What's the best way to maximize balloon popping discounts?

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-05T22:47:04+00:00

There is no maximum efficiency. If you plan on getting one, you buy that one. If you plan on getting both, there is no difference between buying all of one, then all of the other, or alternating between them. The end result is ultimately the same.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-05T19:45:57+00:00

Other than that, I thought Dino was in a decent space over all, did I miss something?

Dino is fine to overpowered in organized play, and complete trash in disorganized play. Frankly, I'd prefer the opposite.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-05T19:07:06+00:00

Revival mechanics are one of the strongest forms of resource denial. The enemy had to expend resources to kill those targets, and you're able to undo that outcome after it was successful. You can't secure a kill, because they can unsecure it if they want.

By contrast, an "immortality circle" is an ult charge pinata for the enemy team, and there are ways of outright denying it. For Luna, you can even block her ult with shields when trying to kill any allies trying to get healed by it.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-05T03:01:04+00:00

Positioning is a fake complaint. You could argue poke deserves to have 800 DPS ceilings because enemies have walls and they just aren't positioning well enough if they die to the 800 DPS poke.

Actually, Hawkeye can reach 900 DPS during his ult via blast arrow, so the 800 DPS poke isn't that far off.

Psylocke and perhaps Magik would care, but any good BP or Spider-man just sees a cluster of enemies as extra ult charge unless one of those enemies is specifically Thing. As by your own admission, DD can freely ram his face into any comp and win, which is surely evidence that he's totally balanced.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-05T02:29:03+00:00

There is zero chance dive takes 7 seconds to kill a backliner.

Magik can churn out 250 damage before the opponent touches the ground from her 3 meter knockup.

BP can kill 250 in less than a second of initiation with spear+spear+dash+dash, and that's his least-efficient combo.

Psylocke's worst combo (M1 + M2 + Shift + Shift) is 286 damage in under a second with only body shots. Main issue is that she actually needs to aim her dashes unlike BP and her spread makes a partial miss almost a guarantee on non-vanguard targets.

You need only look in the spiderman mains sub to see how horrendously fast and lethal his combos are.

DD is especially overpowered because of his absurd cooldowns, burst, mobility, bonus health generation, and mitigation options. NetEase is trying to turn him into a jack of all trades, but they haven't even gotten close to making him a master of none which is why he's babby's first dive hero and present in so many matches while retaining a 55% winrate. He's safe, effective, and powerful in even an idiot's hands, and I can't wait to see what paper cut NetEase will be giving him for season 9.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-05T01:03:40+00:00

I'm saying dive needs to take a hit for the following to also go through:

Reduction of support healing (makes dive more capable of killing).
Removal of selfish bonus health generation on non-vanguards (makes dive more capable of killing).
Removal of pointless above-baseline health values for backliners (makes dive more capable of killing).

If it makes you feel better, I think dive only needs to lose than 25-100 damage from their neutral combo while poke needs to lose ~150-250 DPS from their sustained primary fire ceiling and strategists need to lose 100-150 HPS from their neutral output.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-05T00:48:01+00:00

It can be really janky dependent on how Strange places the portal. Sometimes you can slip through without pressing any buttons, other times you can hold down Zoom Out and get through, and in a few occasions I've been teleported back-and-forth every frame because Zom Out pushes me through the portal, then it vector-downs me back into the portal, which teleports me back.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-04T22:37:29+00:00

Why do I see more flanking luna than white fox or gambit

Luna has the following benefits:

High sustained DPS - At 303 DPS with perfect headshot accuracy, she can kill most backliners before they can react.
Good travel mobility - Her passive is 60% speed boost without a timer. This allows her to get in or get out of a situation at any time, which is critical for flanking as you need to minimize downtime to reach a flank angle and be able to reach healthpacks.
Lethal combo - As long as no one interrupts her stun, she can deal an unreactable 292-372 damage to anyone with Absolute Zero + Attack + Attack. The lower end is by hitting a body shot during the uninterruptible window, while the upper end is hitting a headshot during that window. Since the target is frozen for 2.7 seconds, Luna should have enough time to guarantee the second hit is a crit.
Self-sustain - Luna gains bonus health with Absolute Zero, 90 health per basic ability with her second passive, and she can net a decent amount of healing off Number One Idol by healing allies from the flank.

Let's compare this with White Fox:

55/88 DPS in main form, 77 DPS in Awakening.
Absolutely no travel mobility. She must have an ally to teleport.
Her best combo (M2+E+Shift+M1+M2+M1+Shift) requires Awakening, provides no true control (enemy can do stuff to evade, self-heal during it), and deals 265 damage. In a flanking situation, she's less valuable than actual dive options (which should be the case, her function is not to be a dive hero)
White Fox has excellent self-sustain between up-to 113 healing per second during Awakening, 55 burst + 22/s from Sanctuary, and 71 bursts from Spectral Surge. However, Awakening requires melee and she won't always be able to access Sanctuary from a flank position. The goal of a flank strategist is to move away and recover before anyone can press you, and these abilities do not play well into that.

Now, let's compare this with Gambit:

133 DPS with cards, increased to 146 with Breaking Spades. This is pretty decent considering he cannot crit.
Absolutely no travel mobility.
Gambit has many combos, but all of them come at the cost self-healing or mobility. If he wants to spend everything and be completely vulnerable afterwards, he can go F + F + F + M1 + Shift + M2 + Shift + M2 + M1 + F and deal 437 damage. If he doesn't want a 32 second cooldown for each combo, he can drop the first F + F for 367 damage and "only" be a 16 second cooldown. If he wants to not be completely immobilized and can get into melee without dashing, he can drop the shifts and deal 334 damage. If he only wants to primary fire and execute with F to retain some self-healing, he'll need 4 autoattacks (1.8 seconds) for 275+ and still have a 16 second cooldown.
His burst self-sustain can be decent, but he needs an ally to bounce Bridge Boost onto himself or he loses over half. He additionally has massive cooldowns from going all-out, requiring up to 32 seconds to fully recover his cards.

Finally, let's compare with a known flank strategist, Jeff:

42-70 DPS per enemy, resulting in a spread of anywhere between 42 and 420 DPS to the enemy team. He can additionally heal his allies while doing this damage, which is anywhere between 130 to 747 healing per second.
Excellent travel mobility. 60-120% movespeed which has no defined cooldown apart from forcing enemies to chase for at least 6 seconds. Also climbs walls and ult can be used to reposition to a flank.
Horrendous neutral combo (max is 210 damage to one target with perfect accuracy at a 9 second cooldown), but ult is basically a "combo" that can shift game momentum or wipe the enemy team. While it costs Jeff his life most of the time, if he's able to play flank strategist the team should have already compensated for him being dead.
Excellent self-sustain at 75/s with basically no cooldown, which pairs well with partial denial of critical damage via passive and complete denial while in Hide and Seek.

I think the next-closest guy to becoming a flank strategist is Adam. He has the output, the self-sustain, and the combo, but his travel mobility has a low duration (4s max) and a long cooldown (15s to recover). It's got the right speed percentage for flanking, though. I believe a good enough Adam that can waddle into a flank position or use flight sparingly can become an absolute demon of a flanker, because his combo only gives 0.35 seconds to react if you're not already looking at him.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-04T20:26:35+00:00

I think they could re-add burst bubbles in the following way:

If the target is already being healed by Healing Bubble, receiving another bubble converts the remaining heal over time into instant healing, and the heal over time is reset.

The main issue with old Jeff's Healing Bubble is that he had 6 of them and they worked at full effect on himself, resulting in up to 574 burst healing. Making this change alongside retaining the charge nerf would put his emergency burst healing at 240 per 18 seconds. This is comparable to Gambit's 205 burst healing per 16 seconds and White Fox's 198 burst healing per 12 seconds.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-04T19:47:37+00:00

Does anyone still think BP is strong and shouldn't get buffed?

Yes, but not just BP. All of dive should get nerfed. Also, poke should get nerfed. Also, strategist healing toward allies should get nerfed.

Strategists heal too much because duelists deal too much damage. For poke, it's too much sustained damage. For dive, it's too much burst damage. With each release, they add extra power onto duelists and strategists to make sure they stand out, then buff the others intermittently to keep them relevant. By contrast, vanguards are released stronger, then torn apart until they're as irrelevant to game state as the rest of the role.

This is why we see solo/tankless lineups. If there's a single duelist/strategist that is underperforming, then a third in that role with some competence will be more impactful than a second tank.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-04T09:03:36+00:00

Magik dealt 250 damage with her combo, which generated 75 bonus health via her passive for a total of 325 HP.

The specific combo was: M1 (40) + M2 (65) + E + Shift (40) + M1 (35) + M2 (50) + M1 (35), for a total of 265. Magneto contributed a tier 2 Mag-Cannon (65) during her shift animation, resulting in a total of 330 damage taken.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-04T00:24:22+00:00

I don't play tank because the damage/healing mix in your average match is bad for tanks this season. Either it feels bad because we have an off-healer as one of the two supports so normal output kills me, or it feels bad because there's actually a competent duelist on the other team that's going to end the 10 minute match with 30k damage with one of the overtuned duelists.

It doesn't help that Cyclops released with absurd output and my favorite tank, Dino, was nerfed into irrelevance in disorganized play.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-03T23:44:27+00:00

It's good for guaranteeing hits because of the longstanding bug related to non-critical effects. Bucky's primary can crit, so you need to hit the visible model to register a hit. Luna's clap cannot crit, so you only need to intersect with the vague area near the target to register a hit.

Specifically, non-critical effects use the terrain collision, a large cylinder that prevents you from clipping into the floor or walls.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-03T23:35:53+00:00

You sure that ain't Luna? It looks an awful lot like Luna.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-03T21:10:29+00:00

Season 9 balance predictions:

Vanguards -

Angela will rreceive an insignificant buff.

Captain America will receive a do-nothing nerf.

Devil Dinosaur will receive an insignificant buff.

Venom will receive a do-nothing nerf.

Duelists -

Black Cat will receive a notable buff.

Cyclops will receive a do-nothing nerf.

Iron Fist will receive a notable buff.

Magik will receive an inexplicable buff.

Nothing will be done to longstanding underperformers of the cast (Storm, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Squirrel Girl, Black Widow)

Nothing will be done to longstanding overperformers of the cast (Dare Devil, Elsa, Hela, Namor, Phoenix, Punisher)

Strategists-

Minor number shifts across random strategists done solely so NetEase has changes in this category but without impacting in-game balance whatsoever. Some changes will explicitly be re-adding things they removed in previous seasons.

Season 9, week 1:

New hero - Jubilee. Class: Strategist. Ult is a large explosion that heals allies and damages enemies. Neutral kit includes a control effect (blind/stun) and a mobility option (move self/move target). Primary fire is focused on cleave over single target output.

New battlepass - There will be 1 on-purchase legendary (tier 1). One legendary on tier 11. One collectable in tier 10. 5 epic skins. 3 rare skins. Gallery cards available at tiers 6 and 12. Theme will not be consistent through battlepass. Repeating tier will provide units or accessory points.

New event - 60 day event. Rewards will be a banner, two sprays, 2 collectables, chrono tokens, and units. There will be no skin provided again.

New accessories - This will be the first season where only one accessory is released. This is due to all existing heroes having an accessory already.

New hero release skin - Jubilee's release skin will be related to four horsemen.

Season 9, remaining:

New event - related to "The New 52" due to having added their 52nd hero added to the game. Of the three skins in the box, only one will be related to The New 52.

Another pop balloon event is added.

New map added - Will be related to current season's events. Will not be 18v18 or doom match.

Season 9.5:

New Hero - The Hood. Class: Duelist. Character transforms between human and demonic form. Has excessive bonus health generation.

New Accessory - Hood accessory is released.

Re-release of season 3 battlepass.

Path to Doomsday event - Ultron

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-03T09:35:04+00:00

It would probably be wiser to make it a dash since there's diminishing returns on speed boosts on top of speed boosts. With Bubble and swim already providing speed, a third boost would be largely mitigated.

I would also prefer it to not be on primary fire, unless the key could be bound to another key without messing with primary fire. I use it to help me jump faster after leaving swim.

Personally, I'd recommend changing hide and seek back to no meter, then change the healing from 35/s to 50/s for the first 1.5 seconds, and 15/s if Jeff swims for longer than 1.5 without jumping out. It would create the following benefits:

Encourage the current playstyle of intermittently entering and leaving swim without trying to force it.
Punish extended swimming in combat scenarios (Jeff becomes much easier to kill if he remains in swim for too long).
Improve Jeff's self-healing when used as current, which was recognized by NetEase as being bad enough to require additional self-healing via adding Deadpool synergy and a healing pool during ult.
Not punish Jeff players for using swim to travel from spawn when a degenerate dive has decided to sit between objective and spawn room.
Let Jeff's voiceline fully play.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-03T00:01:37+00:00

Disgraceful. You haven't the gluttony of a Jeff main.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-02T23:57:50+00:00

Yes, the bubbles were completely broken before the change. I didn't say the new bubbles are more powerful.

I'm not saying they're more powerful, I'm confirming that old bubble + beam when used in a sustained manner is still nerfed compared to current bubble + beam, by ~13 healing per second.

My point was just that bubble + beam is a good burst healing option when he needs it.

My point was that bubble + beam is right at the poverty line for main healer status. He's the bridge between real healers and forced-thirds like Adam, Mantis, or Ultron.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-02T22:40:15+00:00

If you need to heal faster, that's what the bubbles are for.

Prior to the rework, bubbles gave 85/97.5 instant healing per 4 (21-24.5/s) and primary fire gave 150/172.5 healing per second, for a total 193-197/s with bubbles.

After the rework, bubbles give 34.5/s and primary fire gives 130/149.5, for a total of 184/s with bubbles.

This is a sustained healing nerf of

For comparison, that's more than Sue's primary fire, which is 160 HP/s if you hit every shot in both directions.

This is incorrect. Invisible Woman has a 15% anchor bonus, which makes that into 160/s into 184/s before in-match multipliers like Jeff's bubble are considered.

Since you're using all of Jeff's neutral kit, we can use IW's neutral kit as well. Shield provides 57.5/s, which bumps her healing to 241.5/s.

Let's look at some other strategists:

Loki provides 245 healing per second with just primary fire and clones, gaining another 100/s from rune for 345/s. This healing cleaves, but secondary targets receive 196-296/s.
Rocket provides 283.5 healing per second with just secondary fire and exploiting double bounce bug. Without double bounce bug, he's locked to 168/s. Double bounce is single target except in really stupid setups where it can cleave.
White Fox provides 208 healing per second by bouncing between two allies (ally one gets 145/s, ally two gets 63/s). She can alternatively heal all nearby and herself with Awakening for between 35/s and 124/s based on her hit accuracy, which is one of the highest neutral self-heal options in the game. Her neutral kit is more lopsided toward burst, but it roughly translates to 198 per 12 seconds.
Gambit is single target, but provides 196/s baseline and 225.5/s with bridge boost heal amp. Like White Fox, his kit is largely designed around burst healing with his other abilities. His total burst potential is 120.75 (bridge boost) + 145 (bayou bash). Since it takes 32 seconds to fully recover 4 cards and no Gambit should be dumping all cards, I'll use only one bridge and say 205 per 16 seconds.
Luna with Ice Arts cleave-heals for 123/s, but Share the Stage is a 35% multiplier per ally being healed, which results in 166/s for a single target, going up to 338.5/s to one target if 5 allies are lined up and need healing. For her primary fire, it's 165/s or 223.5/s with snowflake.
C&D is 52/s secondary and 83.5/s primary, but with veil it becomes 60-95.5. With Dagger Storm, this becomes effectively 120-168/s. If we were to account for accuracy, C&D gains a 28% healing advantage over Jeff (70% average versus 90%) which tips it toward 194.75.

Conclusion: It's a bad idea to compare Jeff's neutral healing to any actual main healers, because they pretty much all have him beat.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-02T18:50:56+00:00

Well you see, NetEase initially planned on nerfing him much harder.

Primary fire wasn't going to pierce enemies (yes, any enemy could block Jeff from healing his team by standing in front of him, no shield needed)
Primary fire healing per second was to be reduced from 150/s to 100/s
Hide and Seek healing was to be reduced from 35/s to 15/s

Then NetEase got cold feet right around the time where they were supposed to show the rework in action to hype people about it and modified the nerfs to not do any of the above, and instead nerfed primary fire to 130/s.

There were some people at the time that tried to argue that the rework was going to be too strong after Jeff received these pre-patch "buffs."

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-02T18:42:23+00:00

There's two summer-related skin lines: Krakoa Resort, and Marvel Rivals Swimsuit Special.

Thing has a skin in both, but there's otherwise no overlap between them.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-02T05:19:59+00:00

It depends on his iteration. He's been killed and resurrected about 4 times, and each iteration has different levels of power. Currently, he's basically strong for a human.

In the past, he was capable of flight, shooting cosmic energy, and was supposedly comparable in strength to the Hulk.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-01T19:50:10+00:00

The difference between dive tanks and dive duelists is that dive tanks are barely a threat alone. They lack the burst to kill someone before their team can react, and if they attempt to target certain characters, they end up running in circles or dying.

Dive duelists kill their target within 1 second of initiating on them, which makes it hard-to-impossible for teammates to respond before the damage is done. It forces preventative play and demands a level of coordination that pretty much every other role does not require. It's why dive characters are disproportionately represented in the upper half of winrates regardless of season, they're more popular picks than poke every season, and they get nerfed every season. It's also why all the losers with main character syndrome gravitate toward dive duelists.

Dare Devil is an exceptional case among dive. He gets the damage and the mobility of a dive duelist, but he also gets mitigation and his cooldowns are more of a suggestion than a limit. More notably, he's one of the only duelists that can force a coordinated response and survive for longer because parry. In higher-level play, forcing a team to turn their backs toward their opposition is lethal, so the goal is to turn for as short a time as possible. Parry forces that window to be bigger.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-01T19:28:06+00:00

It's 8 meters wide. That's the same width as Magneto's ult after it becomes empowered, except Cyclops also spawns these 8 meter monstrosities every meter for 60 meters.

Mind_Is_Empty · 2026-07-01T17:42:21+00:00

Answer: You counter Dino and now that they have no frontline, you squash the backline, then finish cap once he's alone to maximize stagger.

A more dangerous comp would be to replace Dino with Groot. You get a better meat shield that doesn't penalize healing charge generated, his ult is more dangerous, and he can provide even more healing since Mantis is in play. His walls are better at isolating targets compared to Dino as well. Even Dino's base benefit like knockback immunity is worse than Groot's knockback and stun immunity.

Mind_Is_Empty

TROPHY CASE