History YMMV / MarvelAvengersAlliance

* AdaptationDisplacement: All the characters have their most usual design in comic books, and alternate costumes for designs from other media (such as those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe) or alternate designs in comic that are also noteworthy (such as Grey Hulk, or Daredevil with yellow suit). Heimdall, Falcon, and Scott Lang's base designs are lifted straight from the MCU films ''Film/{{Thor}}'', ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', and ''Film/AntMan1'', respectively, bypassing the comics outfits. The fact that these heroes were introduced in Spec Ops based on MCU movies probably has something to do with it.

* BreatherLevel: It has become a trend that odd-numbered [=SpecOps=] are easier starting with 5. The even numbered ones are harder due to the number of tasks you have to complete along with amassing lockboxes. The odd-even pattern reversed with the [=SpecOp=]/Group Boss/Lockbox events. For example, [=SpecOps=] 11 (Daimon Hellstrom) had the notoriously-difficult Blackheart Group Boss and the side-task of gathering Demonic Lockboxes. Spec Ops 12 (Ares) had neither of those and felt much easier by comparison, even though it included a new challenge to get a certain score against the mission bosses.

* CriticalBacklash: Playdom caused a '''LOT''' of uproar among the players by extending PVP Season 13. Why? Because they did it less than an hour before the tournament was supposed to end, in order to "fix a bug affecting gameplay balance". No less than 500 players leapt on Playdom's case mere minutes after the announcement was made on their Facebook page.

* DemonicSpiders: Hacked Servoguards. They can ''Malfunction'' to enter an aptly named "Infinite Loop" which is like a Quantum Jumper, giving extra turns to '''ALL''' the Servoguards present. Servoguards also don't experience Exhaustion, so they have a high chance of getting more turns if another malfunction comes up. Add that to the defense-reducing Exposed and Burning debuffs of their attacks, a mere trio of Hacked Servoguards will annihilate an unprepared party. Fortunately, the advent of Magneto and Vision as playable heroes greatly reduce these robots' destructive capabilities.

* DifficultySpike: After earning five stars in any regular missions, subsequent runs will have enemies scale to your level.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Ever since [[http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130723221600/avengersalliance/images/thumb/1/14/Marvel_Avengers_Alliance_Season_2_Teaser.jpg/200px-Marvel_Avengers_Alliance_Season_2_Teaser.jpg his appearance in the teaser for Season 2]] (and possibly because of [[HandicappedBadass his unique status]]), there has been quite a lot of interest in Armless Tiger Man. His appearance in the game was even asked about in October 2014's Q&A panel.

* GoddamnedBats: [[http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120911151910/avengersalliance/images/4/43/TA-Delta.png TA-Deltas.]] One by itself is manageable, but when they come out in droves (especially if they happen to be the mooks of that mission's Boss Battle), they can be a pain. Not because they're difficult to dispatch, mind you, but because of their "Deep Thought" passive, which drains a good bit of stamina away from whatever player attacks them. By the time you're ready to move on to the next wave of the battle, your characters are going to be pretty low on energy.

* GoodBadBugs: [=PVP=] Season 9 ended with a large population of the non-Adamantium (including the lowest Silver and Gold) players getting all five rewards, including the prize hero Angel. As to be expected, those in Adamantium vented out in the forums.

* HarsherInHindsight: it's been pointed out that, for a long time, Thane has been the only exception among the Lockbox characters, since he never started out a villain. [[spoiler:But then came the end of ''ComicBook/{{Infinity}}'', in which Thane ends up pulling a FaceHeelTurn, making him an ''inverse''.]]

* HoYay: Iron Man's Valentine's Card reads, "My Arc Reactor glows for you. And you. And that cute blonde over there." Thor's wonders, "Was Tony talking about me?"

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The "THWACK!" sound a heavy blow makes, especially if you're the one making it.

* NeverLiveItDown: In comics, a thing that Henry Pym can never live down is the creation of Ultron, a KillerRobot that rebels against him and tries to destroy the human race. [=SpecOps=] 7 features Pym...and yes, he's creating Ultron, and Ultron rebels against him. Good thing the other thing he didn't live down (hitting Janet/Wasp in rage) is not mentioned.

* PanderingToTheBase: Playdom seems to be the master at this. Most anytime players have issues with the game, Playdom often seeks to remedy the problem, or at least mitigate it so that the experience is a lot more fun for all. Consider the following:

* TheScrappy: An in-universe example - [[spoiler: Dr. Doom is this to your heroes. Absolutely ''noone'' will team up with him on your team (not even the villains), and the reactions to him when you first unlock him range from disbelief to downright violent. Not that he cares, though.]]

* TearJerker: This exchange between Nightcrawler and Mystique in Heroic Battle Season 2 Chapter 1 Mission 3:

* UglyCute: There's something oddly endearing about the Thing's dialogue picture. His expression's smile comes off as more friendly than threatening despite his pose, making him look a little like a teddy bear made out of rock.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Pick any outdated character without any passives in their normal outfit and/or with no alternate outfits at all. While the hero can fend for itself in PvE, there's a heavy chance he is a scrappy in [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] where status effects and passives are critical to survive.
** On the top tier list for [=PvP=], we have Emma Frost. Her "Psychic Tap" Level 1 ability does low damage at first, but causes massive damage if the opponent attacks, it also bypasses counters and protect. Her "War Diamond" Level 2 ability stuns the opponent. Her Level 6 ability "Unlock Potential" is a buff which removes debuffs and give the selected character a boost in stats. And finally, her "Mental Trauma" Level 9 ability, is a pretty powerful [=AoE=] which weakens the opponents and can also bypass counters and protects. Her [[Comicbook/AvengersVsXMen Phoenix Five]] uniform pretty much keeps her on the top tier in [=PvP=] by way of her unique "Phoenix Potential: Cosmic Power" passive, which has a chance of applying "Cosmic Power", a non-Stamina consuming version of "Unlock Potential".
** Without a good hero/gear setup, it will take forever just to take down [[StoneWall Rescue]]. God help you if she's with Omega Sentinel, where they become literal [[DamageSpongeBoss shock absorbers]].
** Pestilence!Beast. The sole reason? His passive, "Paradise Lost", which prevents debuffs. Pair him up with a weapon (such as Ex Oblivione) or character that causes a huge number of them, and battles will quickly turn from fun to completely ''irritating.''
** Enchantress. She deals little direct damage, but her lvl2 and lvl6 give her Mind Control and Disoriented respectively, which she can use as Free Actions, with little issue. Her lvl1 is an ethereal, guaranteed hit that gives bane and Chaos Shot, which has ammo stacks like Rocket Racoon. Each of these shots being magic, sheb can heal 10% of her health per shot thanks to the Empathetic e-iso. The end result is your heroes attacking each other while sufffering from a myriad of DoTs. Who needs damage like that?

** The game also adapts Eric Savin's EliteMook status in ''Film/{{Iron Man 3}}'' for a Spec Op tie-in.

** For much time, Nova has been one of the most requested heroes, and fans rejoiced upon seeing him as the reward of PVP Season 18. But many fans stopped rejoicing once they realized that instead of Richard Rider, the original Nova, it was the [[TheScrappy much reviled]] Sam Alexander, whom most people know from his appearance in ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan''. Many fans are already asking for Rider to be an alternate costume.

* HolyShitQuotient: In-universe, you [[spoiler:recruiting the BigBad Dr. Doom]] causes this with several of the heroes.

* AdaptationDisplacement: All the characters have their most usual design in comic books, and alternate costumes for designs from other media (such as those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe) or alternate designs in comic that are also noteworthy (such as Grey Hulk, or Daredevil with yellow suit). Heimdall, Falcon, and Scott Lang's base designs are lifted straight from the MCU films ''Film/{{Thor}}'', ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', and ''Film/AntMan'', respectively, bypassing the comics outfits. The fact that these heroes were introduced in Spec Ops based on MCU movies probably has something to do with it.

** The game also adapts Eric Savin's EliteMook status in ''Film/{{Iron Man 3}}'' for a Spec Op tie-in. Whether or not the game will use his Coldblood persona as a Lockbox recruit remains to be seen.

* MostAnnoyingSound: Rescue's Protector Protocol/Magnetic Attraction can be this, as it serves as a reminder that she's going to be the StoneWall of the match unless you do something about it.
** The sound of Squirrel Girl missing with her "Nuts to This!" buff can be this, especially if you're trying to regain your health in a pinch. It seems that Playdom has caught on to this, though, and [[AuthorsSavingThrow is offering an Augmented Iso-8 that specifically removes the chance of this happening]].
** Gunshots are higher-pitched than most of the other sounds in the game, and are fairly realistic sounding as well, which can make for a potent annoyance during combat.

-->'''Iron Man:''' Let me get this straight. You want us to drop what we’re doing and help you rescue squirrels? You are completely -
-->'''Nick Fury:''' Remember Dr. Doom.
-->'''Iron Man:''' ...right. You are completely right, we should help.

** In an attempt to balance out PvP, Playdom introduced a Level Cap system in September 2014's Beta Tournament, which put everyone at a certain level. Unfortunately, while this was supposed to apply to the weapons as well, those that were 'Custom' were unaffected, doing the exact same damage they were before, resulting in a ''lot'' of [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill hilarious]] one-hit-kills by Agents. However, this ''does'' have the side effect of making PvP progress for some players a lot easier and less frustrating to go through, while others......[[GameBreaker aren't]] [[ItsEasySoItSucks as amused]].

* FanNickname: "Agent Wallet" or "Wallet Warriors" are terms used by players who play the game without using real-life money to buy Gold, Command Points, etc; to address other players who use their real-life money to buy those things and make their PvP team very strong.

** PVP Armory bonuses, to the point of turning PVP since Season 6 from "whoever has the best team wins" into "whoever has the biggest Attack/Defense bonuses wins". But this has been degraded to an extent, since all bonuses were reduced across the board, with PvP armory ones taking the biggest hit, resulting in several reports of players being unable to compensate for their low hero bonuses with PvP armory bonuses, even the latest 2gold costing ones.

** '''The Synthetic Cube''' is one of the most game-breaking items in PvP to date. Aside from imparting the "Reality Hacking" buff on everyone when the match begins ''(which means that any attack, even counters, have a 20% chance of whiffing)'', it can also allow the Agent to use two more attacks: "The Light Fantastic" ''(which heals the entire party and debuffs in the process)'' and "Blackest Void" ''(which can cause your ENTIRE team to attack each other instead of the enemy)''. Combine this with the Mystic weapon ''(which prevents ANY Debuffs whatsoever from affecting the team for the first turn)'', and you've got a truly aggravating experience from start to finish. [[PermanentlyMissableContent Sure hope you've completed the sidequest for the item!]]

** PvP had become a source of much complaining, especially with regards to the ranking system, which was changed in Season 9 to be much harder to get into the Adamantium League (not that it mattered, see GoodBadBugs below). What did Playdom do? Combine both ranking systems into one, so now, even if you don't have the ranking level, you may still have a chance if you're in the top percentage!
** The addition of having an 'away team' in addition to your attacking team in PvP is also a nice bonus.

** In June, Playdom offered the Synthetic Cube for sale, much to the delight of those requesting it....and the [[BribingYourWayToVictory ire of those who can't afford the hefty 128 Gold pricetag.]] Later on, however, for a cheaper price, they began offering items with the ''"Obsolete Tech"'' debuff, which can give said players a fighting chance against [[GameBreaker the Cube]]. One such item? The popular Mystic ''(then a PvP exclusive reward prize!)''

** In the last leg of PvP Season 18, Playdom tossed players a bone to cope with the surge of Tactician Armored opponents who are [[GameBreaker exploiting the Momentary Advantage/Snappy Service combo to get an absurd number of turns]] - a little item known as ''Weather Control'', specifically its "Fire Tornado" attack, a quick action that can cause Exhausted on an entire team! Best of all, that attack is Catastophic, which means that defensive teams that hide behind walls such as Groot or effects such as Reality Hacking weren't safe from it. Better yet, if the player is using Pestilence!Beast, it will backfire on them as they can't get rid of Exhausted. Even better still, if the CPU-controlled opponent happens to have one themselves, they won't spam "Fire Tornado" constantly to keep the player under their thumb, which keeps it from being a complete GameBreaker on defense itself. In one smart little package, Playdom managed to solve many of the balance problems players were having with PvP.

** Pick any outdated character without any passives in their normal outfit and/or with no alternate outfits at all. While the hero can fend for itself in PvE, there's a heavy chance he is a scrappy in PvP where status effects and passives are critical to survive.

* NeutralEvil: Kingpin supports SHIELD in the conflict against a mafia rival to his own one.
-->'''Punisher:''' Fisk, you may think you're opting out of this war, but if I see you out there, I'll bring you down just like any other scum.
-->'''Kingpin:''' Duly noted.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Since this game takes several elements from Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, some players only play this game to see what if ''Film/XMen'' and ''Film/FantasticFour'' become part of MCU.

** Enchantress.She deals little direct damage, but her lvl2 and lvl6 give her Mind Control and Disoriented respectively, which she can use as Free Actions, with little issue. Her lvl1 is an ethereal, guaranteed hit that gives bane and Chaos Shot, which has ammo stacks like Rocket Racoon. Each of these shots being magic, sheb can heal 10% of her health per shot thanks to the Empathetic e-iso. The end result is your heroes attacking each other while sufffering from a myriad of DoTs. Who needs damage like that?

*** However, on June 2016, Rochard Rider was announced as a general release hero.

** In regards to recruiting the [=SpecOps=] heroes: originally, they were to be LostForever if you did not recruit them during the [=SpecOps=] period. Now they sporadically have them on sale...for an exorbitant price of 200 CP!

** '''The Synthetic Cube''' is one of the most game-breaking items in PvP to date. Aside from imparting the "Reality Hacking" buff on everyone when the match begins ''(which means that any attack, even counters, have a 20% chance of whiffing)'', it can also allow the Agent to use two more attacks: "The Light Fantastic" ''(which heals the entire party and debuffs in the process)'' and "Blackest Void" ''(which can cause your ENTIRE team to attack each other instead of the enemy)''. Combine this with the Mystic weapon ''(which prevents ANY Debuffs whatsoever from affecting the team for the first turn)'', and you've got a truly aggravating experience from start to finish. [[LostForever Sure hope you've completed the sidequest for the item!]]

* ArchivePanic: Brand new players start off facing 12 lengthy chapters in Seasons 1 and 2, each with six missions apiece, and an ever-expanding roster of heroes at daunting price-points.

* ArchivePanic: Brand new players start off facing 12 lengthy chapters in Season 1 and 10 in Season 2, each with six missions apiece, and an ever-expanding roster of heroes at daunting price-points. And Season 2's chapters are still in production...

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Playdom seems to be the master at this. Most anytime players have issues with the game, Playdom often seeks to remedy the problem, or at least mitigate it so that the experience is a lot more fun for all. Consider the following:
** PvP had become a source of much complaining, especially with regards to the ranking system, which was changed in Season 9 to be much harder to get into the Adamantium League (not that it mattered, see GoodBadBugs below). What did Playdom do? Combine both ranking systems into one, so now, even if you don't have the ranking level, you may still have a chance if you're in the top percentage!
** The addition of having an 'away team' in addition to your attacking team in PvP is also a nice bonus.
*** The ability to give your Agent in each [=PvP=] "team" a different set of weapons from the gear used in regular missions is also an added perk.
** A "Bonus Bar" was added to address complaints about the [[ScrappyMechanic Duplicate Covers]] in the Lockbox segments. When you get duplicates, the Bonus Bar fills up. Once completely filled, the next comic book cover will be a new one, guaranteed!
** The last chain of tasks prior to the Epic Boss in a [=SpecOps=] would usually be to beat the Mission 3 Boss, and then three-star all missions. The latter two tasks can actually be done in one sequence (with enough preparation), but three-starring Mission 3 would require ending the Mission. The problem here is that Epic Bosses would be the last in the chain in order to finish the [=SpecOps=], meaning, the player has to go through Mission 3 again after the aforementioned sequence. Both time and ISO-consuming, but fortunately, Playdom seems to have taken notice, and has since put Epic Bosses on Mission 1 or 2 instead.
** Playdom recently earned a lot of ire by extending the PVP Season 13 tournament by one week mere minutes before it was to be completed. Two days later, they gave away 100 Challenge Points as an apology to those players, some of whom were grateful that the points that were wasted defending their titles are now restored.
** In June, Playdom offered the Synthetic Cube for sale, much to the delight of those requesting it....and the [[BribingYourWayToVictory ire of those who can't afford the hefty 128 Gold pricetag.]] Later on, however, for a cheaper price, they began offering items with the ''"Obsolete Tech"'' debuff, which can give said players a fighting chance against [[GameBreaker the Cube]]. One such item? The popular Mystic ''(then a PvP exclusive reward prize!)''
** If you have saved up enough gold to purchase the upgrade, being able to train ''two heroes at the same time'' is very invaluable, given the time-consuming nature of training one hero at a time. This allows any new recruits to rack up on levels while a high-level hero is pending a level-up.
** In the last leg of PvP Season 18, Playdom tossed players a bone to cope with the surge of Tactician Armored opponents who are [[GameBreaker exploiting the Momentary Advantage/Snappy Service combo to get an absurd number of turns]] - a little item known as ''Weather Control'', specifically its "Fire Tornado" attack, a quick action that can cause Exhausted on an entire team! Best of all, that attack is Catastophic, which means that defensive teams that hide behind walls such as Groot or effects such as Reality Hacking weren't safe from it. Better yet, if the player is using Pestilence!Beast, it will backfire on them as they can't get rid of Exhausted. Even better still, if the CPU-controlled opponent happens to have one themselves, they won't spam "Fire Tornado" constantly to keep the player under their thumb, which keeps it from being a complete GameBreaker on defense itself. In one smart little package, Playdom managed to solve many of the balance problems players were having with PvP.

** '''The Synthetic Cube''' is one of the most game-breaking items in PvP to date. Aside from imparting the "Reality Hacking" buff on everyone when the match begins ''(which means that any attack, even counters, have a 20% chance of whiffing)'', it can also allow the Agent to use two more attacks: "The Light Fantastic" ''(which heals the entire party and debuffs in the process)'' and "Blackest Void" ''(which can cause your ENTIRE team to attack each other instead of the enemy)''. Combine this with the Mystic weapon ''(which prevents ANY Debuffs whatsoever from affecting the team for the first turn)'', and you've got a truly aggravating experience from start to finish. [[LostForever Sure hope you've completed the sidequest for the item]]!

** While several players complained about the web-head goons in Special Op 29 being [[DemonicSpider Demonic Spiders]], several others pointed out the limits of their Spider Sense including not working against attacks that hit all enemies, debuffs that prevent evasion including those that Hawkeye and Black Widow (which are mandatory characters) have, counter attacks and the True Strike effect. Also, bleeding attacks, which activate whenever the opponent act turn their Spider Sense against them and items with that effect in case your moves get locked out are easily available. Heroes with multi target attacks that staggers like Hulk, Ant-Mant and Anti-Venom shut them down. And if you happened to have a Symbiote on your side, he just [[NoSell No Selled]] the Spider Sense. So while they are [[EliteMook Elite Mooks]] that will give a player who just started a bad time, a player who managed to build a decent selection of heroes can easily manage them.
* GoodBadBug: [=PVP=] Season 9 ended with a large population of the non-Adamantium (including the lowest Silver and Gold) players getting all five rewards, including the prize hero Angel. As to be expected, those in Adamantium vented out in the forums.

** In an attempt to balance out PvP, Playdom introduced a Level Cap system in September 2014's Beta Tournament, which put everyone at a certain level. Unfortunately, while this was supposed to apply to the weapons as well, those that were 'Custom' were unaffected, doing the exact same damage they were before, resulting in a ''lot'' of [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill hilarious]] one-hit-kills by Agents. However, this ''does'' have the side effect of making PvP progress for some players a lot easier and less frustrating to go through, while others......[[GameBreaker aren't]] [[ItsEasySoItSucks as amused.]]

* {{HSQ}}: In-universe, you [[spoiler:recruiting the BigBad Dr. Doom]] causes this with several of the heroes.

* MostWonderfulSound: The "THWACK!" sound a heavy blow makes, especially if you're the one making it.

** Completing the Campaign Mode doesn't end there. You are inclined to grind each of the Season 2 chapters and attempt to win each hero-unique Empowered Iso-8 from Heroic Battles ''AND'' move-unique Augmented Iso-8 from boss battles. Like comic book covers, you can also get ''duplicates''. OneHundredPercentCompletion will be a full-time job.

*** Mission 4: Cyclops, Storm, and Colossus vs. Dragoness, Avalanche, and Toad - each of the villains gets two to three attacks per turn. Toad can use Adhesive Spit, which turns into Hardened Spit if it's applied twice to the same person, and this results in the character in question being stunned for three rounds straight and rendered defenseless. Coupled with Dragoness hitting hard and causing Melt Armor, which turns the heroes into [[GlassCannon glass cannons]], and Avalanche giving his entire team (himself included) extra turns at random, and this battle is just plain frustrating.

* VillainSue: Arcade of [=SpecOps=] 15, who holds the Agent's entire roster -- some of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe -- captive, and none of them can escape or do anything about it.

** For much time, Nova has been one of the most requested heroes, and fans rejoiced upon seeing him as the reward of PVP Season 18. But many fans stopped rejoicing once they realized that instead of Richard Rider, the original Nova, it was the [[TheScrappy much reviled]] Sam Alexander, whom most people know from his appearance in ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderman''. Many fans are already asking for Rider to be an alternate costume.

* ArchivePanic: Brand new players start off facing 12 lengthy chapters in Season 1 and 9 in Season 2, each with six missions apiece, and an ever-expanding roster of heroes at daunting price-points. And Season 2's chapters are still in production...

** Scrapper Iso-Saurs, for quickly literally bleeding your whole team dry in a few hits.

** Also with the playable Loki, even though the game came out after ''Film/{{Thor}}'' and shortly before ''Film/TheAvengers'' the design for the boss Loki is that of the comics while the recruitable version is that of ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld''. Even all the ''Warriors Three'' base designs were taken from the the same movie's likeness as well.

* CharacterTiers: Some heroes are definitely stronger than others, especially in [=PvP=]. Playdom, however sometimes comes along and buffs weaker characters up to higher tiers. What heroes occupy the higher ranks are subject to change from season to season, but the general consensus is that if a character finds a Hammer of the Worthy, their usefulness shoots up quite a bit, due to having unavoidable debuffs.

** The Agent will almost always bring one of these weapons/gadgets: Quantum Jumper, Limited Edition gear, Premium Mission or Excelsior gear, [=SpecOps=] and PVP weapons.

** PVP Armory bonuses, to the point of turning PVP since Season 6 from "whoever has the best team wins" into "whoever has the biggest Attack/Defense bonuses wins".