The beta phase for Marvel’s Avengers is over, and the loot brawler has already provided a good insight into its mechanics. MeinMMO analyzes the build and role system of the new superhero game and discovers more depth than expected.
With the service title Marvel’s Avengers, publisher Square Enix aims to venture into the usual hunting grounds of loot shooters like Destiny 2 or The Division 2. To give its future players a glimpse into the gameplay and the surrounding environment, a closed beta followed by an open beta was conducted over several weekends for players on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox.
Opinions on the test phase vary widely, even here on MeinMMO. Some were impressed and are ready to play at launch, while others criticize almost everything about the game – starting from the missions, the combat system, to the graphics. You can find our survey on the topic here.
However, at least the equipment and role system has more to offer than it shows in the first hours. We at MeinMMO have delved deeper into the mechanics of the beta and present the results here. In addition, we show:
- How different builds work
- The equipment of the beta
- The status effects for heroes and enemies
- An outlook on how it could continue
The heroes make the difference, how you should play
How significantly do the heroes differ from each other? Due to the different gameplay mechanics that the heroes offer, some heroes play very differently than others. Hulk and Iron Man feel almost like they’re from two different games, but the difference between Ms. Marvel and Hulk isn’t as pronounced, as both tend to use their fists to take down opponents.
However, even with these similar heroes, you can approach the game differently, as the following bonuses can vary significantly:
- Hero skills
- Base stats
- Equipment bonuses
How do the skills impact the heroes’ roles? The skills and base stats set the basic direction of the hero and give a clue as to which play styles are most efficient for the respective characters:
- Hulk can draw aggro from enemies and prevent damage to himself – Tank
- Ms. Marvel boosts the team’s willpower (health) – Healer, Support
- Iron Man can incapacitate enemies, create a shield for parrying, and offers 3 ranged weapons – Damage Dealer, Crowd Control
- Black Widow can stun enemies, make friends invisible, and offers 3 ranged modes – Damage Dealer, Support
- Captain America & Thor were briefly available in the tutorial for testing
The skills are categorized into 3 groups – in the HUD, the support skill is on the left, an attack skill on the right, and the ultimate attack is at the top. You can further develop the skills and combos in a skill system. Each hero comes with their own skill tree, for which you gain a unlock point with each level up. In the beta, the max level was 15. You can view the heroes’ skills in the YouTube video by “Mr.RedRivers” in a quick run-through.
How do the base stats impact the heroes’ roles? The heroes have values from 7 categories and bring different base stats, which further specialize them. These are the stats:
- Power – Melee Damage / Ultimate Charge
- Courage – Amount of critical damage and strength of skills
- Ability – Critical hit chance / Activation of equipment perks
- Resilience – Armor value / Support skill charge
- Determination – Increase willpower (health) / Health regeneration
- Precision – Ranged damage / Damage skill charge
- Intensity – Strength of stunning and status effects / Status resistance
If you increase one of the base stats, the corresponding properties improve directly. Additionally, these 7 stats are divided into 4 categories that show how strong a hero is in each respective area:
- Melee Rating: Power / Courage / Ability
- Increases the base damage of melee attacks
- Ranged Rating: Precision / Courage / Ability
- Increases the base damage of ranged attacks
- Defensive Rating: Determination / Resilience
- Increases survival capabilities
- Hero Rating: Intensity / Resilience / Courage
- Increases damage of skills
In terms of base stats, the heroes have inherent differences, making them typically preferred for a certain play type:
- Hulk: Defense
- Ms. Marvel: Ranged
- Iron Man: Hero Rating
- Black Widow: Ranged
Some also have weaknesses in certain areas. For example, Hulk gathers fewer points as a ranged fighter and is therefore more suited to the front lines, while Iron Man has disadvantages in melee and defensive ratings.
How do the equipments influence the heroes’ roles? All these values can be enhanced using equipment, further specializing the heroes in a specific direction. In the beta, each piece of equipment provided one of the 7 base stats. In addition to the stats, the “armors” also bring additional bonuses depending on the type that fit the slot.
In the beta, there were 4 armor slots and 2 artifact slots. The equipments come with bonuses from various categories that match the respective class. However, there are also many bonuses that span across the equipments, such as boosts to willpower, status effects, or increased damage for combo finishers, but each piece usually strengthens a specific action:
- Melee Equipment: Melee
- Ranged Equipment: Ranged Attacks
- Defensive Equipment: Dodge / Parry / Revive
- Hero Equipment: Takedowns / Signature Moves
Additionally, there were also the side artifacts, which also feature one of the 7 base stats and offer protection against status effects or improvements to skill charges. The slot for a main artifact was visible but remained unfilled in the beta.
Some equipments also provide crazy abilities that almost resemble a hero skill. For example, Black Widow can have an ability called “Agile Graviton Explosion” on her “Defensive Equipment”. There’s a chance that each perfect dodge generates an anti-gravity field that levitates enemies into the air.
Builds enhance the heroes’ play style and focus on specialization
How significantly do builds impact the heroes? A good build noticeably affects the strength of the hero, and you can significantly specialize your characters through tailored builds. However, heroes already have a certain inclination due to their skills and base stats, which directly impacts your equipment assembly.
Your freedoms here are limited because it makes sense to boost the strengths of the characters and only slightly compensate for weaknesses, if at all. This, in turn, limits the selection of bonuses on the equipments. If a hero is leaning towards a “Critical Hit” build, then you will certainly also take the combo bonus that grants you a boost on a crit hit.
The system is relaxed, however, through the base stats that strengthen 2 properties each. If a hero tends to the “Courage” stat, the character immediately gains bonuses for “Critical Damage” and “Hero Effectiveness” (skill damage). Whether you decide to focus on more “Ability” to strengthen the critical hits or prefer “Precision” to reduce the cooldown of the attack skill is up to your decision.
Regarding the status effects, it holds – many support a certain play style, and some fit better into your build than others. “Shock” increases the enemies’ vulnerability to critical hits, so it makes sense to take this element with a “Crit Build”.
However, the depth of the equipment selection is quite decent upon closer inspection:
- Selection of the right base stats
- Boost of the heroes’ skills
- Strengthening combat actions like finishers, combos, takedowns
- Effects for critical hits
- Buffs for defensive moves
- Willpower boosts
- Bonuses on stuns
- Advantages for revivals
- Improvements to skill charges
- Utilizing status effects
- Protection against status effects
- Incorporating special abilities
Even if the chosen Marvel hero already gives a direction, you have many options to adjust the desired aspects. However, the role system becomes truly diverse when multiple heroes come into play. How significantly the given base stats impact the builds in the endgame or whether the initial stats even become irrelevant cannot yet be said. The heroes’ skills could also become relativized if, for instance, a strong crit build provides more advantages than focusing on your skills.
What is truly worthwhile will only become apparent at release. However, the approaches in the beta indicate that builds could constitute a significant part of the heroes’ strength. And there is definitely enough material available for the most diverse approaches.
The equipment determines your strength
The equipment sets the power level of the heroes. This level directly indicates how strong the respective character is leveled up. Your power level also determines the level of the activities you start.
The majority of equipment pieces can be upgraded to increase the power level. The rarer the equipment, the more levels you can ascend with it:
- Green (Uncommon) – 3 levels
- Blue (Rare) – 5 levels
- Purple (Epic) – 10 levels
- Gold (Legendary) – 10 levels
The higher your level, the better the equipment you find in the activities. With certain resources that you gain throughout the game world and from dismantling equipment, you can upgrade the pieces and unlock more of the perks incorporated into the equipment.
The system is comparable to the light level in Destiny. The activities have a certain power value, which is usually dependent on your level. However, there are also missions that recommend a minimum level. In the beta, for example, there was the mission in the villain sector, where you had to take down a large combat robot. Here, the recommended level was 20 on normal difficulty, but you could start the mission much earlier – at a significant disadvantage.
The levels and capabilities of the equipments are random, and you have to loot your desired builds together. Not all parts are equally strong and can also have different stats even with the same power level and abilities. The “Equipment Advantages” value shows with a maximum of 5 stars how strong the equipment piece is in comparison to the best value.
Massive status effects that can hit heroes and enemies
What kind of status effects are there? Marvel’s Avengers offers you 2 types of status effects – elemental and stun effects. Some enemies even possess a few special skills to weaken heroes.
How can I use this? When you smack your enemies, the “stun value” increases for the opponent. After several hits, this value reaches a threshold for the enemy, and the opponent is stunned for a moment and more vulnerable to attacks and takedowns.
The strength of the stun effect of an attack is visible in the heroes’ skill tree. Here you can see exactly what effects the attacks have – such as damage, stun value, and the enemy’s reaction to the attack.
You can add elements with your equipments. Certain attacks then cause elemental damage. If you attack the enemies with these attacks, the enemy charges with this element and after several charges, the status change that the element triggers occurs – similar to stunning.
What elemental effects are there? The loot brawler comes with 6 elements, each having a different effect on the enemy:
- Shock – Defense drops, enemy becomes more vulnerable to critical hits.
- Pym Particles – Enemy shrinks: Takes more damage and has less attack.
- Plasma – A plasma burn causes damage over time. Every time the enemy takes damage, it halts their attacks.
- Gamma – Radiation causes damage over time. Kills with active gamma radiation explode.
- Cryo – Slowing the enemy results in fewer attacks. Additionally, damage is reduced.
- Cosmic – Affected enemies increase the willpower of the heroes and take more damage.
With the elements, you can further specialize your heroes. A healer focuses more on “Cosmic Damage” to bolster willpower, while a crit build relies on “Cryo” to increase vulnerability to critical hits.
What can also affect the heroes? The enemies have their own status effects that can annoy your heroes. However, the enemies generally did not employ any of the elements listed above in the beta. If they did, then they were slight variations that functioned similarly but had different effects:
- Weakness – Attacks have no penetration and do not knock back enemies
- Pinning – Heroes are slow and cannot run
- Confusion – Visibility is impaired, orientation is more difficult
- Freezing – Slows down the heroes and attacks
- Exhausting – Skill recharge rate is slowed
However, environmental damage works differently. There were one or two places in the beta where you received plasma or gamma damage.
More possibilities will come with the release
Marvel’s Avengers has already hinted at some of the build options that will be available at release. The current abilities tree of the heroes is a cut-down version that does not show all possibilities. This could also be seen by the fact that there was a tab selection visible above the tree in the menu, even though there was only one tab. There will be 3 tabs that allow you to customize your skills to your play style. So far, the preview images showed:
- Primary
- Specialty
- Mastery
With this, you can further specialize your skills and heroes.
With the release, the slots for main artifacts will also be available. These are the only equipment items that all heroes share. The in-game description currently provides the following information: “Main artifacts are rare but permanently increase the power level when equipped. They also grant unique advantages of incredible strength and effectiveness.” However, how exactly they achieve this is still unclear.
Reactions to the beta were generally negative, and many of the mechanics showcased in the test phase met with little approval from players. However, there seems to be much potential in the build and role system. If you want to know more about the gameplay and the beta, check out MeinMMO colleague Phillip Hansen’s preview.
