{"id":14892,"date":"2021-01-27T13:53:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T18:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/67272bb316.nxcli.io\/heroclix\/?p=14892"},"modified":"2021-01-27T13:57:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T18:57:50","slug":"heroclix-2021-rules-article-2-hitting-the-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wizkids.com\/heroclix\/2021\/01\/27\/heroclix-2021-rules-article-2-hitting-the-bench\/","title":{"rendered":"HeroClix 2021 Rules Article 2: Hitting the Bench"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Standard Powers in HeroClix are part of what makes it feasible to fit so much game play information onto the Combat Dial™. However, 48 Standard Powers is a lot of powers. When you consider all of the in-game terms a player needs to understand to play HeroClix, it\u2019s a little over 100 terms. We wanted to make this less daunting without eliminating abilities from the game. The result is that starting with DC HeroClix: Wonder Woman 80th<\/sup> Anniversary<\/strong> <\/a>there will be Standard Powers that aren\u2019t used on any of the figures in the set \u2013 they won\u2019t be on the dials, they won\u2019t be in the special powers. Internally we\u2019ve referred to those powers as being on the bench.<\/p>\n

While this isn\u2019t a change to the rules<\/em> it\u2019s a meaningful change to the design<\/em> of HeroClix that we know players will notice, and it\u2019s part of the strategy we\u2019re implementing to make the game easier to onboard beginners so we wanted to address this amongst the rules updates.<\/p>\n

Why Bench Powers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like we said before, 48 Standard Powers is a lot of powers and reducing that number helps the game become more accessible to beginners. But just like The Indomitable Knot, the number of powers in HeroClix relates to other considerations.<\/p>\n

One of our goals was to make sets and low-rarity figures (most importantly \u2013 commons) easier for new players to digest. One of the ways that we did that was by making the total quantity of different powers, standard or special, across ALL the commons smaller. Without putting a number on it, when a player opens a booster, they\u2019ll be getting fewer different abilities than they would have before.<\/p>\n

While the beginning of this initiative might not have a big impact on Modern Age gameplay (it will be one of nearly a dozen sets) at a later point it could be true that only half of the sets in Modern Age use certain powers. So we\u2019re implementing a bottom-up change now for a benefit that will help future beginners even more than current ones.<\/p>\n

Fewer Standard Powers Changes How Figures Feel Different From Each Other<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now one of the ways that figures, especially low-rarity ones without many special powers, feel different from one another is that they have 2 or 3 Standard Powers on any given click that are different from similar figures. That inflates the complexity of common figures, and often inflates their point values too. In DC Comics HeroClix: Wonder Woman 80th<\/sup> Anniversary<\/strong> and upcoming sets, expect to see figures in similar roles that feel different because of their:<\/p>\n