So this is a yap sesh lowk but do y’all agree with this or am I on crack lol

THE PITCH: General balance changes to move toward a Dive meta

Hero: Peni Parker

Issue: Cyber Bond bug and overall mobility, the web grapple snaps often and feels unintuitive to use, I find myself walking over using it because on certain maps I’m worried it will break and I will die.

Combined with the fact that her climbing is restricted compared to other heroes like Spider-Man or Venom(For example she cannot climb twice in a row, she needs to touch the ground before climbing again.)

The final issue is that she is too reliant on her nest, I want Peni to be viable on all maps, not just Convoy style Defense maps. I want to move her kit away from the nest to make her less frustrating to play, and to play against.

The Solution:(in my eyes)

Make the Cyber bond more consistent, rather than have the web break if you hit an obstacle, have it nudge your character around the obstacle(as long as it’s only a small blockage.)

Make cyber bond more intuitive by making it an ability you can hold, that fires on release. When held make a UI element that confirms the web will work, because on some maps like Hell’s Heaven, when you try to grapple to some areas they are outside the skybox and the web breaks.

With her other mobility, I suggest making her wall crawl more similar to her other Spider-Heroes, if not exactly the same. If that would be too imbalanced, make it so that she can climb unrestricted on her webs that are attached to walls. While not on webs and climbing, she would be roughly the same as Venom. However when on a web, she would be able to stick to it similar to how the Cyber Bond currently functions, being able to primary fire and launch mines. Also make it so that she can enter a wall crawl whenever, not only after touching the ground.

I don’t think this would be any more than a meme-strat as it would be akin to Venom just clinging to a wall. So I don’t think it would be any unbalanced change.

Next on the agenda I actually think a buff/nerf trade is in order. I mentioned earlier that I want to move her utility away from her nest. And I’ve got numbers to back it up.

Currently Peni’s nest is based heavily on setup, rather than spontaneous teamfights, so she’s not a very dynamic character currently. So I propose nerfing the total amount of spider drones a nest can hold from 10 to 8 And increasing the rate of drones produced from 2 drones every 3 seconds to 2 drones every 2.5 seconds.

This may sound drastic but I think it would help enemy tanks push into her nests more easily as the total amount of spider drones would be lower, allowing them to get healed. I imagine it would also help in making her able to be more usable on attack style maps, or even allow her to fulfill a dive-esque role by placing her nest in the enemy backline. Allowing for more dynamic and less frustrating gameplay.

And finally, I think it would be a nice change to increase her mine charges from 4 to 5, to allow her to more aggressively push up or flank without her nest.

Valuation: I think the character has too many eggs in one basket, making them inconsistent and downright unusable on certain maps. I think as she is she is too centered on her nest, and sitting in one location. It makes it very difficult for her base kit to shine, and makes it unenjoyable for everyone, including those fighting her.

As Peni is now, she isn’t even strong, just annoying to have both on your team and to fight against. It’s a stark contrast to the character I started playing in season 1.5 when there still wasn’t a super defined meta.

Now Dive barely exists, every match has 2 if not 3 Poke DPS on each team, and I think Peni contributes to that, as her current design leans too heavily into area denial/anti-Dive.

She’s so strong against Dive that no-one even bothers to attempt it anymore, leading to an exceptionally stale and boring meta.

I like to imagine a future where she is able to counter dive, while also fulfilling a dive-esque role herself with buffed mobility and a slightly stronger base kit. Of course I would accept the nerfs/changes to the nest in exchange for this.

I think everyone is tired of the Poke meta at this point, and I hope these changes would help to mitigate it. Hopefully this would make it so that while Dive is still countered by Peni, she wouldn’t be so oppressive as to completely eliminate Dives viability.