u/TowelSilver318

With the final patch before the midseason out, it's time to talk about what to expect/hope for in the midseason.

Peni has been through a lot these past 3 major patches, and while midseasons are usually smaller, without a hero to work on, this may be an exception. I also can't shake the feeling that she's been in a transitional phase ever since S9, but maybe that's just me.

Her overall power right now is quite good, actually, and she's very fun to play on either side too. Her primary buff really went a long way, but it also ironically served as the final nail in the coffin for the stun IMO, with the increased opportunity cost making it rarely worth even trying. Her PR has partially recovered, especially at higher ranks, towards S9 levels, her WR fully recovered to S9, even briefly breaking 70% at a couple ranks, and while her BR is higher than S9.5, it remains a lot more reasonable than S9. Also, a pro supp main quietly mained her to #5 on the ladder (currently #16).

I think she may be too good to get a direct buff RN, even if the state of her snare is clearly unacceptable. In fact, I'm a bit concerned she may get a small nerf. My hope is for a change-up patch where she gets a new ult and something for the snare in exchange for nest nerfs, but that's a pretty major and risky change.

In terms of skins, her recent Epic seems to have been her last entry on the leaked list of skins in the works, as she is not in it anymore. This doesn't rule one out, but combined with her already having a Halloween skin, and presumably a bunch of MCU Avengers stuff coming, as well as a couple other teased skins, I'd say her odds are very low. There's a slight chance for a rerun of her first Legendary, but I wouldn't count on it, especially since it was event-based.

He did say not all changes were brought up, and from what I can tell the overall direction he claims the balance will go seems very on-point, so I'll be pretty surprised if there's nothing. He did mention more choices and counterplay for frontline vanguards and boosting aggressiveness capability of mobile vanguards, and that roughly 70% of the roster will get something.

Some general notables include alternating bans to avoid doubles, an SW rework, a lot of what seems to be nerfs and buffs to heroes people are asking for (His nerf list for tanks is Hood, Thing, Mag), supp ult charge reduction, and removal of BC I-frames.

Edit: Before freaking out, he stated not all changes were listed, and in the past some of the biggest ones have sometimes been the ones left out of the Dev Vison. Wait for the actual notes to complain.

Edit 2: I will say that I could see her getting mostly or entirely skipped due to being planned for a major overhaul/rework.

It's pretty well known that Peni's ult is not very good, and becomes one of the worst in the game as you climb. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that on top of its own issues, it may be the underlying cause of the questionable direction the devs have taken "balancing" her. Most attempt to explain how to "properly" use the ult or why it's "good" rely heavily on the nests, because the ult is inherently tied to them. In fact, the pointless slow buff to the nests was presented, and perhaps even truly intended as, an ult buff. What I'm getting at is that the devs may feel like they can't nerf her nests as doing so would also nerf her already poor ult.

As weird as it may sound, and I may be on way too much copium, the stun nerf may be a bit of an opportunity in this regard. The best "justification" for leaving her ult as-is was her getting significant ult-related value from her stun, and wanting to mostly get rid of that may be the most logical explanation for nerfing it the way it was nerfed. Now that that's done, and assuming that even whatever they may do to try and "fix" it will probably not be a real revert, there is room to replace or rework her ult in a way that would both fill that massive hole in her kit and leave her open to proper nest, and general balance.

Unfortunately, I don't have any DLC that isn't free with the game, and would rather not buy any at the moment. How critical is it? If I have to get DLC, which are the most important for the cost?

Beyond that, I'm looking for advice on any general things I should know, as well as who I should play and why (bonus if there's good guides or info on them in the wiki).

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