Greetings Heroclix Masterminds!
Welcome back to our series on the upcoming rules update for Marvel HeroClix: Spider-Man Beyond Amazing! Last week we discussed the biggest changes in broad terms, but this week we’re diving into all the smaller changes and tweaks. For today, we’re tackling the Powers and Abilities card. If you’d like follow along on your own copy, you can download the new PAC HERE. If you haven’t read the previous two articles in this series, we’d recommend checking them out first. You can read Article 1 HERE, and Article 2 HERE.
Minimum Range 4
As we mentioned in the last article, due to the change in map size any standard power with a minimum range of 6 now has a minimum range of 4. Barrier, Force Blast, Mind Control, Probability Control, Perplex, and Outwit fall into this category, and have received no changes other than an adjustment to their minimum range.
Pulse Wave
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With the average range values coming down, we ran into a problem with Pulse Wave; either we gave characters such above average ranges that characters with Pulse Wave saw more use as snipers than Pulse Wave specialists, or their halved ranges made Pulse Wave feel inconsequential. To fix this, Pulse Wave now provides a range of 4 instead of halving range. Aside from making the in-game math simpler, we’ve discovered a number of secondary positive effects from this change.
First, we can now give primarily melee-oriented figures Pulse Wave without needing to use a special power to give them a range value. Secondly, for those characters with a special power that grants Pulse Wave with a certain range, that special power is more intuitive to understand. “Pulse Wave with a range of 6” will now play exactly as it reads, rather than the current state of needing to know the given range still needs to be halved.
Quake
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A small addition to Quake, but one that will be important to strategize around: using Quake will now destroy all destructible terrain markers and blocking terrain within 1 square before the character using it makes its attack. It’s important to note that this terrain destruction is within 1 square, not adjacency; using Quake can destroy terrain that would otherwise not be targetable by a CLOSE Destroy action such as terrain at a different elevation or behind a wall.
One of the exciting design aspects of this change to Quake is that it’s an elegant change that maintains a ton of the action-packed flavor of superhero combat.
Super Strength
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Super Strength has been on our radar for a long time as a power that we wanted to make a significant and thoughtful change to, going back to before the 2021 rules changes. Super Strength is a superpower that many players have felt an emotional connection to. It would be really cool to tear a car door off to save someone who is trapped or throw an evildoer way out into a body of water. There were, however, some practical problems with the excitement level surrounding Super Strength.
Super Strength at its most effective was a component of an alpha strike, potentially using a heavy (or ultra heavy!) object. That alpha strike would KO or debilitate your opponent’s most crucial piece, and you’d use other tactics to mop up the remainder of their force. The victim of that attack wouldn’t get to enjoy the strategically rich push-and-pull of a normal HeroClix game, and they might even miss out on the most enjoyable features of the team they had carefully constructed.
Super Strength in other situations felt like it paled compared to other attacking options due to its reliance on objects. In some games, players would each begin with 3 objects, so Super Strength users would have at most 6 opportunities to optimize their power. Practically though, they’d be getting many fewer chances if equipment were on the map, or if a player destroyed an object in order to deny the Super Strength character a chance to use it. While it’s true that a player could include a character who generates objects as part of a special power or trait, that was much more cumbersome than including a character with Outwit, Probability Control, or Perplex, which could benefit basically any attacker on your force on any click.
It turns out that the efficacy fix for Super Strength was actually in a rules update, and mostly outside of the power itself. Some figures in recent sets were even designed knowing this change was around the bend, so we’re especially interested to see which ones players experiment with in upcoming events.
As mentioned in the first article, Super Strength now allows other characters to pick up, hold, and put down all terrain markers save for Debris, Smoke, and Water.
Smoke Cloud
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Smoke Cloud received the minimum range 4 update, but also got a secondary update. Smoke Cloud now generates Smoke terrain, which is a new subset of hindering terrain that can’t be picked up, destroyed, or used in a Terrain action. It’s otherwise identical to hindering terrain.
Support
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Support has been greatly simplified and brought in line with Regeneration’s functionality. It no longer has an attack-roll-that’s-not-an-attack-roll, nor are there requirements regarding adjacency to opposing characters. We hope that with this simplification and buff we’ll see healing grow into a more used aspect of the game.
Looking back at previous versions of Support, it was given many restrictions so that it could be given out more liberally, but ultimately those restrictions made the power less desirable for players and dial designers to capitalize on. Moving forward, we expect to see players more keen on Support.
Telekinesis
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Telekinesis has multiple changes. First, like other powers, it now has a minimum range of 4. Its ability to place characters is unchanged, but whereas before it could only reposition objects, it can now reposition any terrain marker (save Debris and other Immobile terrain). Lastly, Telekinesis allows characters to make RANGE terrain actions with any terrain marker within range and line of fire!
Improved Movement: Destroy Blocking
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There’s a minor but significant tweak made to IM: Destroy Blocking. It now immediately destroys blocking terrain as the character moves through it, rather than waiting until the movement concludes to destroy the terrain. This will enable character to end their movement on the blocking squares they’re destroying without violating the Rule of Occupancy, which we feel is a more intuitive interaction.
Overall, you’ll see that these PAC powers are keeping at the heart of what they’ve always done while increasing their utility. Along the way some new combos have been unlocked like Super Strength/Charge/Barrier and Telekinesis/Running Shot. We’re looking forward to players testing these combos out in the wild!
And that’s it for today! Join us again next time for the final article, where we tie everything together and dive into the updated Comprehensive Rules!
Sincerely,
The Heroclix Design Team
