It's a new year, and that means rebirth. And who is more likely to be reborn in the flames than the Phoenix herself, Jean Grey?

That's right! For our first character rebalance of the year, we're going with the long desired classic and one of our very first 5-Star characters, Jean Grey (Phoenix). Unlike Lockjaw whose kit got some mechanical updates in addition to some numbers tweaks, Jean's rebalance is pretty much exclusively buffing the numbers to all her powers. Which makes sense for an omnipresent cosmic being, I guess.

Jean Grey (Phoenix)
5-Star Rarity
Affiliations: Heroes, X-Men, Mutants

"A founding member of the X-Men, Jean Grey sacrificed herself to save her teammates. Upon her death, Jean's heroism and telepathic potential drew the attention of the Phoenix Force.

The cosmic entity of creation and destruction merged with Jean's consciousness and, as the Phoenix, Jean was reborn powerful enough to save worlds... or burn them."

(Abilities listed at level 255, followed by 450)

Health and stats have been updated.

OLD:

10567 Health / 42474 Health

 15 | 107 | 17 | 122 | 137 | 16 | 69 | 4.0x

 59 | 428 | 69 | 489 | 550 | 64 | 276 | 4.0x

NEW:

17638 Health / 70894 Health

 24 | 178 | 29 | 203 | 228 | 27 | 115 | 4.0x

 98 | 714 | 116 | 816 | 918 | 107 | 461 | 4.0x

5-Stars were powerhouses when they premiered, with HP values and damage values far in excess of all those puny 4-Stars.While some of those characters have shown to be absolute destroyers throughout the years, others are a little less comparatively strong at this point. Phoenix is a prime example of this; Back in the day 42K health was a LOT! Now it gets one shot by some other abilities. With this update, it puts Jean Grey back up into the vaunted heights of health, while also giving her base match damage a good boost. She won't hit as hard as Gamora (Deadliest Woman), but then again, few do!


OLD:
From the Ashes - PASSIVE
(PASSIVE) Locked in a cycle of death and rebirth, the Phoenix is eternal. When Jean Grey becomes Downed, create a 3-turn Red Countdown tile that revives Jean with 40% of her health and changes this power to Phoenix Force.

This power can fire while Jean Grey is Stunned.
  • Level 2: Creates a 3-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 48% of her health.
  • Level 3: Creates a 2-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 48% of her health.
  • Level 4: Creates a 2-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 55% of her health.
  • Level 5: Creates a 1-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 55% of her health.
NEW:
From the Ashes - PASSIVE
(PASSIVE) Locked in a cycle of death and rebirth, the Phoenix is eternal. When Jean Grey becomes Downed, create a 3-turn Red Countdown tile that revives Jean with 45% of her health and changes this power to Phoenix Force.

This power can fire while Jean Grey is Stunned.
  • Level 2: Creates a 3-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 50% of her health.
  • Level 3: Creates a 2-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 50% of her health.
  • Level 4: Creates a 2-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 55% of her health.
  • Level 5: Creates a 1-turn Countdown tile that revives Jean with 60% of her health.
This change raises the overall amount of health that she'll be resurrected with, which is magnified by the fact that this amount of health is also larger due to a bigger health pool, making a stronger impact. Additionally, it also provides another bonus boost at Level 5, which increases the value of a 5 point power choice.

OLD:
Phoenix Force - 9 AP
Returned with a vengeance, Jean unleashes the destructive elemental power of the Phoenix Force! Deals 4144 damage to the enemy team and 1295 to Jean's teammates. (Max level 16656/5205 damage)
  • Level 2-5: No Change

NEW:
Phoenix Force - 8 AP
Returned with a vengeance, Jean unleashes the destructive elemental power of the Phoenix Force! Deals 6750 damage to the enemy team and 1266 to Jean's teammates. (Max level 27132/5087 damage)
  • Level 2-5: No Change
Lowering the ability cost slightly makes it easier to cast, but the damage has also been increased on each use. The formula used also happens to lower the amount of incoming team damage taken by a small amount, but that was mostly a byproduct of the primary rebalance. At max level, this ability now deals about 50% of the health of a bruiser like Deadpool (Spirit of Vengeance), meaning that it's going to be dealing significant team damage to the enemy at the low cost of 8 AP. Downside of course, is that it still requires Jean Grey to be downed once first.

OLD:
Psychic Rapport - 7 AP
Jean's telepathy creates an intense bond with those she cares about. Convert 3 random basic or Team-Up tiles to Red.

(PASSIVE) On a Match-5, improve 3 random friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 104 or reduce 1 random enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tile by 104 (to a min. of 1). (Max level 416/416)
  • Level 2: Converts 4 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 104, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 104. (Max level 416/416)
  • Level 3: Converts 5 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 130, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 130. (Max level 520/520)
  • Level 4: Converts 6 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 130, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 130. (Max level 520/520)
  • Level 5: Converts 7 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 156, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 130. (Max level 624/520)
NEW:
Psychic Rapport - 7 AP
Jean's telepathy creates an intense bond with those she cares about. Convert 3 random basic or Team-Up tiles to Red.

(PASSIVE) On a Match-5, improve 3 random friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 169 or reduce 1 random enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tile by 169 (to a min. of 1). (Max level 678/678)
  • Level 2: Converts 4 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 169, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 169. (Max level 678/678)
  • Level 3: Converts 5 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 211, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 211. (Max level 848/848)
  • Level 4: Converts 6 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 211, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 211. (Max level 848/848)
  • Level 5: Converts 7 basic or Team-Up tiles to Red. Improves 3 friendly Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 254, reduces 2 enemy Strike, Attack, or Protect tiles by 211. (Max level 1017/848)
This power got a large buff to the Passive, increasing the effectiveness of the improvement and reduction effects by about 65%. With these changes, this allows Jean to heavily mute the prowess of defensive characters like Beta Ray Bill without necessarily having to destroy or eliminate those tiles (which would just give Bill more AP).

OLD:
Psychic Flames - 9 AP
Jean unleashes the Phoenix Force on her enemies, but begins to lose her sense of self in its elemental power. Deals 1295 damage and creates 2 strength 104 Red Strike tiles. If there are 5 or more friendly special tiles, creates 2 strength 259 Black enemy Attack tiles. (Max level 5205 damage, strength 416/1041 tiles)
  • Level 2: Deals 1683 damage. (Max level 6766 damage, strength 416/1041 tiles)
  • Level 3: Creates 3 Red Strike tiles. If there are 5 or more friendly special tiles, creates 3 Black enemy Attack tiles.
  • Level 4: Deals 2202 damage. (Max level 8849 damage, strength 416/1041 tiles)
  • Level 5: Creates 4 Red Strike tiles. If there are 5 or more friendly special tiles, creates 4 strength 324 Black enemy Attack tiles. (Max level 8849 damage, strength 416/1301 tiles)
NEW:
Psychic Flames - 8 AP
Jean unleashes the Phoenix Force on her enemies, but begins to lose her sense of self in its elemental power. Deals 2320 damage and creates 2 strength 173 Red Strike tiles. If there are 5 or more friendly special tiles, creates 2 strength 207 Black enemy Attack tiles. (Max level 9327 damage, strength 695/832 tiles)
  • Level 2: Deals 2742 damage. (Max level 11023 damage, strength 695/832 tiles)
  • Level 3: Creates 3 Red Strike tiles. If there are 5 or more friendly special tiles, creates 3 Black enemy Attack tiles.
  • Level 4: Deals 3585 damage. (Max level 14414 damage, strength 695/832 tiles)
  • Level 5: Deals 4007 damage. Creates 4 Red Strike tiles. If there are 5 or more friendly special tiles, creates 4 Black enemy Attack tiles. (Max level 16110 damage, strength 695/832 tiles)

Another ability that has had its AP cost changed, but losing none of its power while doing so. As a matter of fact, the base damage is almost doubled while the strength of tiles have also been improved in the process. It also decreases the downside creation of enemy tiles, making it a better candidate for a 5 point power versus dealing with the extra 30% bump that the tiles got previously.

These increases to Jean's powers should help her become more of a threat on the battlefield since the years of her original release. She was meant to be a high damage enemy that you avoid at your own peril, especially if you down her before dealing with her teammates first. These changes are aimed at rekindling that feeling of dread you get when you aren't paying attention and miss that Countdown tile on her Green triggering, thus heralding the return of the Phoenix. This rebalance is scheduled to go Live on the normal morning server update on 1/13, so look forward to a rekindling of space bird flames on Thursday!