Dear Marvel Heroes,

I don't know how to put this in a way that won't upset you, so I'll just come out and say it: I cheated on you last night.

I ran into my ex yesterday, and she asked if we could talk. Sure, Diablo broke my heart a year and a half ago - but we've got so much history over the past 18 years that I felt I should at least hear her out.

We got together after I got out of work. The conversation started pretty light, discussing the old days and remembering how much fun we once had together. Then she did something I never thought she'd do: she apologized to me for what happened in 2012. She admitted that she did me wrong and let me down. She told me that she missed me, she wanted me back, and that she's made a lot of changes.

She asked me if I wanted to go back to her place to see firsthand just how much she'd changed. I was hesitant at first, but she said it was no-strings and I could leave any time I wanted - so I went with her. Once thing led to another, and the next thing I know it's midnight and we're still going at it.

We're going to see each other again tonight, and there's already talk of getting together sometime this weekend as well. I'm sorry to do this to you Marvel Heroes. You were good to me and were always there for me when I needed you, but Diablo just does things for me that you've never been able to. I'll still come see you on holidays and special occasions, as you always treat me extra special on those days. Who knows, maybe this is just a fling - but I've got to give it a chance and see where it goes.

Marvel Heroes would like the opportunity to win you back by dressing all sexy and giving you free stuff:

Hi there,

There were a couple of good posts lately about loot and even a few posts prompted by the fact that other popular RPGs are trying to improve their loot systems and make them as sexy as ours. :P
We've definitely seen some great ideas in all of the discussions and the loot game is something we keep close to our hearts (we get an email from Brevik almost every night with his loot experiences, among many other things).

The new designers we hired from the community last month, and the item design team had a great meeting today where we reviewed all the comments from posts, plus reviewed the next 10 months of plans we had for loot in 2015. We added more things to our to do list for this week, next week and the coming weeks to make sure every week we make changes and additions to the loot game. Weekly content is one of our major strengths. We don't have to wait for yearly expansion packs to iterate on loot, we can literally do stuff on a daily/weekly basis.

I've played most games on the market and believe Marvel Heroes has one of the best loot systems, but no designer should ever, ever believe their system is perfect. Every designer should read every scrap of feedback with a humble, open mind and make smart changes when appropriate.

With that in mind, we identified a bunch of changes and have already started work on some and completed work on others:

This Week

The first thing we're doing is upgrading the item hunting experience by:

Increasing the drop rate of unique items for level 30+ heroes in all zones and modes.

Changing the ratio of uniques to have a 90% chance to drop a unique usable by your current hero (up from 80%).

Independently increasing the drop rate of "Any Hero" and "Shared Hero" unique items very significantly. Now that we have so many more "Any Hero" uniques, the rate should reflect the quantity. @amthua is also working on an alogrithm to increase the rate of these automatically whenever a new "Any Hero" unique is added. This will be done separately so they don't reduce the chance of you getting a unique tailored to your hero.

Reducing the price of upgrading uniques to level 40 and 50 by 50%.

Doubling stack sizes for all boosts.

Replacing some of the incidence of cosmic gear slot 1-5 in cosmic chests with cosmic rings (less feast/famine)

Increasing drop rate of Gem of the Kursed on Kurse in Level 60 terminals

Increasing drop rate on the Hulk Medallion and other boss Medallions in Holo Sim

Increasing loot on solo and split-wave bosses in Holo-Sim and X-Defense

With The Next Large Patch

Stopping the timer on buff potions while you are in hubs, training room and PVP. (This tech should be testable in about 2 weeks).

20 more inventory slots

30 more inventory slots associated with team ups (these can be used even if you don't have a team up)

Further review of item stack sizes

More "Any Hero" uniques to support certain builds that aren't being supported

A pass on all PVP rings to ensure they are useful for PVP situations

Unique rings that are geared towards PvE

A recipe that allows you to permanently buff your team up hero by giving them your extra unique items

Several recipes that allow you to turn duplicate uniques into other various other things (this won't be OP, but it will much better than vendoring them)

New artifacts to support mental & energy & ranged builds (MODOK now drops his Headband, but a few more are coming)

New artifacts to further support melee survivability and time-to-clear times (as you've noticed, we've been focusing on this recently and will continue to focus on it)

The Following Patch

Further iteration of loot tables to ensure you never have a terrible day

A very large pass on all items in the game to ensure every item has at least 1 build for which it is useful (this includes Legendary items)

More runewords to support various builds

Stark-Tech items which are being designed as a highly customizable "mini item game" within a game. We'll preview the new design in about 3 weeks.

New uniques and artifacts that can be farmed in a reasonable amount of time from each terminal boss

Many more terminals!

Another reward to celebrate our Mac launch that can be earned by all players that functions close to the Asgard reward chest

Several interesting new uses for crafting materials

Enchanting for various additional slots

Well, was doing some X-Def with Beta Ray Bill last night... got 3 Uniques. On the bright side, they were all better than the ones I had already. Many runes collected, but no darn Serpents or Tyrs.

Really, I'd like to see an increase of rune drops. Or at least, runes that are actually worth something.

That all sounds pretty good, but I'm still going to walk the new path I've chosen.

If you really want me back, you can start dressing like this:





Or this:





Or even this:

Well at least you had the choice KrisL. Something is wrong with my processor/Mobo. It overheats on any game I run now including Civ4. I get the blue screen of overheating after 15 to 20 minutes. Even without playing, my comp slowly heats up and does that every couple days anyway. I just need to upgrade but that can be pricey. So I'm out of commission for the near future.

The bright side is my friend is loaning me his copy of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag for the PS3 since he just got the PS4 version.

Just curious Kris, what changed on Diablo III that makes it better? I have it, it was decent, but really got boring.

Okay, it's official. I give +100% RIF to any party members that are with me. If you don't believe me, just ask Silver Lantern how his night was in 3 rounds of X-Def with me.

Sheesh. I need to clone myself so I can group up with me to take advantage of this or something.

Also, important storage tip: Uru-Forged Items, much like Rings and Insignias, can be stored as unbound items in character stashes. So that helps save room.

Is it the mobo overheating or the graphics card overheating? Because for either one, it sounds to me like your cooling fans are either mucked up or failing. And cleaning or replacing a fan is a heck of a lot cheaper and easier than replacing a whole system.

Oddly enough, the Civ games are some of the most processor intensive games out there. Most games are limited by GPU power, but Civ is all CPU. What kind of computer do you have? Desktop/Laptop? Self built or store bought? Are all your fans running properly? I'm happy to offer any tech assistance. It might be as easy as replacing your CPU cooler, and that can be done on the cheap.


As for Diablo 3, they have completely re-worked the loot system and the paragon leveling system in ways that feel very rewarding. Large overhaul of all class abilities. Big stat re-work and number scaling. Auction house is closing down in a couple weeks. New expansion is coming in a month. Just a lot of stuff that makes the experience better in my opinion.

I've been a die-hard Diablo fan since the original, and I spent years playing Diablo 2 off and on. So my excitement is likely influenced by nostalgia somewhat, but I'm having a good time right now. Lots of people on my Battle.net friends list that had been offline for over a year are showing up again too, which is always fun!

Honestly, I liked the D3 mechanics and such but... I guess I got tired of the GrimDark storylines. It's why I don't wear my black leather trenchcoat anymore either.

If you dig it, that's fine with me, but the story itself is just not my cup of tea. Though, part of me is amused by the fact that..



Puts the whole ending thing for Mass Effect 3 in a new light.

I cleaned all the fans when I got the new case last month, and it's definitely the processor because it's starting to happen when I use Powerpoint for long stretches as well. It's just old components, especially the mobo/processor. The case, PSU, and drives are all less than a year old.

We shall see what the wifey says regarding money for the upgrade. On the plus side, Black Flag is pretty righteous.

Someone I know on Facebook got a portal to Bovenheim today with their Fortune Card, so we went. And man, talk about a LOOTSPLOSION. Got 2 uniques, 8-10 cosmics, and at least a dozen artifacts. Was very crazy.

Also got a Cattle Rune, which cracked me up.

I think I've got 4 or 5 of those single use portals. Maybe I'll make my way back to marvel heroes and run some with ya sometime.

So I prestiged Wanda again, and she's now level 46.

I just want everyone to know that even though I slipped off to join a new guild, I still like all of you. Except maybe KrisL, because he's playing D3.

If you're active on the Book of Face, I can see about getting you in if you're interested.