Marvel Heroes 2015 is a shining example of an MMO that is constantly evolving and offering something new for its players. One of the newest additions to the game is Juggernaut, a hero with an interesting history and equally interesting skillset to match.

Heading into the Juggernaut release we had plenty of questions on what makes this particular hero tic, and Ryan Collins, Creative Designer and Community Manger at Gazillion was awesome enough to provide some insights. In the following interview we discuss Juggernaut’s new momentum mechanic, stat and Omega Point considerations, upcoming costumes and more.

Be sure to read through the end of the article for a custom code to apply to your Marvel Heroes 2015 account!

Like many characters in the Marvel universe, Juggernaut has spent time on both sides of the hero / villain divide. Is that part of what attracted you to select some of the initial characters commonly considered villains in this next wave of releases?

Absolutely. We wanted this batch of heroes to represent guys who have ridden the line between good and evil multiple times – all of which have iconic runs as heroes (Juggernaut, Magneto on the X-Men and Venom as the Lethal Protector!) We also have an upcoming motion comic that will explain the heroism of these guys a bit more.

It’s always great to see new combat mechanics enter the game, and they seem to go over quite well with players. Rogue, for example, has been incredibly popular since her release.

Could you explain how the new momentum mechanic being introduced with Juggernaut works?

Juggernaut’s Momentum is a primary resource which is to say that it’s a replacement for Spirit. The primary way to build Momentum is by moving – as you move, your Momentum meter fills up and your move speed increases, causing Juggernaut’s animations to change as he dips further and further forward into his sprint.

From there, Juggernaut’s Momentum is used in a few different ways: it can be spent by some powers, such as Big Elbow Drop which spends ALL of it for huge damage per amount spent. Momentum also enhances some powers such as Rope-A-Dope having a greatly increased attack speed for the amount of Momentum you have. Most of his powers don’t REQUIRE it, which allow Juggernaut to use most of his powers at all times, even if they’re a weakened version of them.

As is typically the case when new mechanics are added for a hero release, I suspect that Juggernaut will be a 600 splinter hero. For our readers who might not know about the splinter system or why heroes have different values associated, could you explain how all of that works?

Juggernaut will be 400 Eternity Splinters. Eternity Splinters are a currency you collect by simply playing Marvel Heroes 2015 and defeating enemies – they drop at a relatively controlled rate so that no matter what you do, you’ll get them at the same rate as another player. You can use Eternity Splinters to purchase heroes, Team-Up Heroes, Retcon Devices (respecs), and a number of other things such as recipes.

For new heroes, they will generally all fall under the 400 Eternity Splinter tier unless they have insane VFX such as Dr. Strange or new, complicated mechanics such as Rogue. For Ghost Rider, he was a mix of both with his “Ride” tech + intense Hellfire visuals resulting in his higher tier price. We don’t foresee more than one or two 600 Eternity Splinter heroes over the next year.

With the addition of raids to Marvel Heroes, have you found that there is a greater need to have more heroes that can fulfill more traditional MMO combat roles? Juggernaut seems like a great example of a hero that can be a bit more tankish and focused on raw physical damage.

Our first raid Muspelheim doesn’t currently require anybody to tank for instance, but it relies more on group mechanics (such as the get together – get away mechanics of the Hellfire & Brimstone fight). While Juggernaut is definitely a pretty tanky guy, he’s also going to be moving around lots so he’s not an ideal choice for somebody whom you want to keep aggro on (though he does have a taunt!) In general, we are going to keep designing content so that roles aren’t needed, but good cooperation and skill is.

One question I’ve seen pop up in chat quite a bit is whether Juggernaut will focus mainly on Brutality over other stats. Will that be the case, or are there any additional insights you can give us along those lines?

Ha! Brutal Strike would definitely be a flavorful thing for him since he hits SO HARD, but he actually doesn’t have a lot of Critical Hit Rating in his kit inherently. The jury is still out on exactly how to build him stats-wise, but we just added a new affix to one of his passives that grants him 50% of Tenacity from items and other sources as Critical Hit Rating, which is a pretty cool take on his unstoppable nature.

Being a huge fan of alternate advancement systems, the Omega Points have been a welcome addition. Any tips on where players might want to focus their points for a hero like Juggernaut?

I foresee that all of the early builds will be focusing on giving him lots and lots of Strength, because hitting hard is always good. We have some new Omega System tabs in design right now that will hopefully give him some very interesting Movement Power options.

It may be a bit too early to discuss, but is there any chance we’ll be seeing a Fear Itself costume option for Juggernaut at some point in the future? The Fear Itself costumes have been great in general, but that’s always been one of my favorite looks for Juggernaut, so I had to ask!

You bet. The X-Men costume (grey and gold) is next, but Fear Itself is definitely coming after that. Kuurth is so damn cool.

Like many, I’ve defeated Juggernaut in the Church of Purification too many times to count. He naturally loves reminding me each time, “Don’t you know what invulnerable means?” Will Juggernaut have skills or even uniques that will grant the player temporary invulnerability?

Oh yeah. His power Crimson Force Field passive allows you to activate on demand invulnerability for a short time and when you’re about to be defeated, it procs an invulnerability shield just before you go down (similar to other hero’s revives).

Bonus Round: Speaking of the voice acting, what is it like getting to work with voice talent like Fred Tatasciore (the voice of Juggernaut)? Is the hero’s dialog fully scripted going into the process, or is there a level of collaboration between the team and the voice talent?

Fred is one of our favorites internally – we’ve used him for a handful of different characters (Hulk, Beast) and I’m actually heading to Los Angeles next week to record with him for an upcoming motion comic! There’s some other great voice talent we’re going to be bringing in for that session that I’m so excited to announce I don’t know if I can resist spoiling it… but not here!

Special thanks to Ryan Collins and the Gazillion team for taking the time to answer our questions on the Juggernaut release for Marvel Heroes 2015!

Be sure to visit the official Marvel Heroes 2015 website to redeem the custom code below:

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Once logged into your account on the official site, navigate to the Redeem Key page to enter your code! Please note: the above code is good until 12:00 PM Pacific Time on Friday, November 7.

Have fun and be sure to share your thoughts on Juggernaut as the newest hero in Marvel Heroes 2015!