Iron Man is one of the most recognizable characters in the modern Marvel era. He is a genius whose imagination knows no bounds, an inventor with limitless capabilities, a billionaire, a playboy, and, of course, a philanthropist. However, many players of the Armored Avenger in Marvel Heroes feel that he has become rather lackluster in many departments. In this thread, which is based off of @Vespyr ‘s incredibly thorough and informative Emma Frost Feedback Compendium, I hope to condense all of the feedback provided for Iron Man by the playerbase into a single place to help the developers. I hope all readers find it interesting and informative, and that this sparks new interest in the direction Iron Man is headed. I would like to thank @ADour, @LargeHawaiian, and @ajsupertwo for their support, feedback, and contributions in making this thread.
@Ryolnir @MichaelMayhem @KingBacon I hope that you find this helpful!
Iron Man needs damage tuning across the board. Because he relies on so much damage rating, his base damage seems incredibly low. A great first step would be to increase the base damage of his powers.
Iron Man has possibly the best spirit management in the game. We sincerely ask that this not be touched in his review.
Iron Man has quite a few redundant powers that have no use in many builds. Mainly, these include Pulse Bolt, Jet- Assisted Slam, Coolant Blast, Voltaic Punch, Unibeam, Channeled Repulsors, and even Life Support Systems. Most of these are only worth one point, if any at all. These should be given places in Iron Man’s diverse kit.
While retaining much of his diversity through toggles/specializations, also improve the effectiveness of single-tree builds. Iron Man, who is a hybrid hero, should still benefit from combining powers from different trees to some degree, but right now there are Beam/Missile, Melee/Missile, and Missile builds. Energy, Melee, and Missiles should all have defined builds.
More build diversity is also very possible. Micro-Missiles and Wrist-Rocket are used in nearly every build, which is rather annoying. Stacking DoTs like Kitty or power buffs via toggles/specializations can fix this. Players should still be able to mix and match powers from different trees if they do not want to use a single-tree build. This was a driving force behind many suggestions I personally created for this thread. Many players from the community also had wonderful ideas that support build diversity.
Flatten his DoTs and Cooldowns in increments of 4 seconds and increase Iron Man’s damage accordingly. This would solve (at least partially) a variety of problems ranging from rotation difficulties to powers with long animations having very short cooldowns (Jericho Bombardment and Coolant Blast primarily). The only exception from this should be Arc Reactor Overload.
A credit boost on one of his passives, similar to Gambit, would add a bit of flavor to his skillset. Tony stark is incredibly wealthy, so this would make sense (Copied the idea from @Vespyr :P)
Increase his travel speed by making flight faster and free and also improving responsiveness of his dash
Iron Man could use some visual updates to make his powers flashier. His visuals lack the oomph of many newer heroes’ powers.
He could use some more survivability in his kit. Powers with especially long animations (One-Off, Death From Above, etc) could benefit from invulnerability or damage reduction while being used. Consider improving the damage shield on Adaptive Armor.
For his QoL, try to limit the number of active powers (excluding toggles) to what can fit on a single skill bar. Many players do not like using multiple bars, so skill bloat can annoy them. We are certain that this can be handled properly (Thanks @GiSSed for this suggestion)
Iron Man’s highest damage builds lack useful AoE. Increase the damage radius of many of his missile AoE powers.
Try increasing his health pool a bit. A couple players seem to find Iron Man a bit healt starved. Try rolling it into whichever toggle/power becomes the sole defensive passive post-QoL (Arc Reactor Overload, Adaptive Armor, Life Support Systems) (@ejester)
Consider adding a blue interface module in front of Iron Man's face when he uses either missile or energy beams powers. It would be similar to the red interface that appears in front of War Machine when he uses ranged powers. Also consider making this a cosmetic addition to one of the toggles. Missile Control Systems would probably be the most reasonable choice. If specializations are added post-QoL, then consider making this a cosmetic toggle on Iron Man's offensive/defensive passive.
Consider improving the responsiveness or speed on some of his powers. For example, Wrist Rocket and Jericho Bombardment feel slow and lock Iron Man in place. If this were to be minimized, the responsiveness of his rotation would increase, and sluggishness would decrease
@dreamelder suggests:
I might get some flack for this...but...is there any way Jericho bombardment/micro missiles/missile missile control systems could be altered to be not missile-based? with War Machine confirmed, war machine is the guns/missiles guy most of the time, Iron Man using lasers more often. Missile control system could be 'Targeting control system' with small pop-up lasers from Tony's shoulders. Micro missiles/Jericho could be swapped to be energy bombardment powers. I'm sorry, but Tony is the high-tech guy. He uses missiles here and there, but beams and blasts tend to be more his speed in comics. I like the missile attacks, but would certainly not mind if they become energy blasts. Heck, Jericho could even become an orbital laser strike. Shrugs
@Citron suggests:
I'd like to see the voice of Jarvis inside the armor (even inside the Avengers Tower too), Jarvis is part of the armor, now i feel like his is very lonely and quiet...Example: When IM defeated an enemy, Jarvis goes 'Well done Sir!' or something like that. When IM is low on HP, Jarvis goes 'System Error' or 'Be careful Sir', ect. When idol, Jarvis goes 'Sir, now might be the good time to answer the phone calls', ect. This is so much cooler than just placing him as a vendor...
@MightyZee suggests:
Someone mentioned that MH Iron Man seems a bit too missile-orientated and I'd agree with that. Love the missile skills we have now but it feels like he should focus quite a bit more on laser beams if you're going for accuracy to the source material.