So. Variant 5. My (actually) Short Review.
Rockypantherx
Member Posts: 3,917 ★★★★★
Here we are again. I would have had this out earlier, but I pulled a 6* Domino from an Air-Walker cav, and, yeah, I had a bit too much fun with her.
So, Variant 5. What do I think? Well, it was enjoyable I guess, apart from an overly passive AI refusing to throw specials half the time. That caused me a lot of frustration.
I think the most important thing I learned from this variant is that Magik only has an 85% chance to power lock on her SP2. I genuinely thought it was 100%, so I was really confused when it failed to trigger a bunch of times. Never noticed it before.
Overall, I don’t think this variant was particularly difficult, especially considering we were told it was going to be more difficult. I probably used around 600 units on the entire exploration, although I do have a fairly stacked roster. One thing I did like is that there really isn’t any ‘niche’ fights. There is an Iceman, but Sasquatch and Mephisto can take that straight up, and a bunch of mystic champs have energy resistance, which will mitigate it.
My team for this variant was pretty fluid, so I’ll just put in all the champs I used throughout since it’s important to get some sort of perspective on why I maybe found some fights alright ad others not so much.
Main Champions:
5* R5 Claire Voyant
5* R5 Stealthy
5* R5 Voodoo
5* R5 Kali
5* R5 Symbiote Supreme
5* R5 Magik
5* R5 Stark Spiderman
5* R4 Venom (Who I actually just took to R5 after exploring the variant)
Niche Champions:
6* R1 Dormammu (For Scarlet Witch)
6* R1 Mephisto (For Scarlet Witch)
4* R5 Doctor Doom (Tried him on the flux dispersal path. Didn’t go so well)
4* R5 Sasquatch (Because Iceman was a thing)
As you can tell, yes, I do like ranking up Mystic 5*s. So I had a pretty stacked team for this.
Chapter 1:
The first quest was...fine. I actually think this is one of the most difficult quests throughout the entire variant. You basically need a spider hero for the boss, otherwise, it’s hell. Debuff Immune and Bane path wasn’t too fun, but there is nothing too egregious here. The second quest was absolutely fine, the boss is super easy. The global in the first chapter is really nice. It fits that nice little area where it makes fights easier, but you don’t need it necessarily. Overall, I had no issues with this first chapter. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but I wouldn’t say it was ‘enjoyable’ either.
Chapter 2:
Let me start the second chapter by saying that the mystic global is busted. Especially with Voodoo and Kali. I cheesed so many fights with them throughout this chapter, not mention it’s great for other mystics as well.
There isn’t anything too difficult in the third quest, there is a Domino that eats you alive, but most champs with decent damage output should survive the fight, probably just barely. I’m not a fan of the Scarlet Witch though. There are only 3, soon to be 4, poison immune champs you can use in this quest, and half of them will take you 3-400 hits to finish the fight. You can burst it down with other champs if you get lucky, but for example, one run with Voodoo I revived him at 20%, went in, crit on my first hit, got heal blocked, crit on my second hit and got poisoned. Bam, dead. That was not a good feeling.
The 4th quest is probably the easiest in the entire variant if I’m being honest. The hardest fight is a Power Shield, Burden of Might, Power Efficiency Nick Fury. Which I admit, cost me a team revive. I did not enjoy that fight one bit. But the rest of the paths were either easy or actually fun. The Storm boss was a joke with Sym Supreme. I wasn’t sure what I was doing in that fight, I just know she died quickly. Overall, Chapter 2 is my favourite chapter in this variant, mainly for the mystic boost. It promotes a different playstyle with mystics and spotlights some of the lesser-used ones. As well as being borderline broken for some.
Chapter 3:
Chapter 3 is where I really felt the difficulty ramp up. Specifically, the block damage. Now, variants are pretty notorious for this, and I still don’t like it. Especially here. The Symbiote global is brilliant in theory, however, the trade-off with the likely block damage is just not worth it unless you can’t do the fight without the AAR. The path difficulty also shot up, not that it’s a bad thing it does.
The Life Transfer/Psychic Thorns path is pure cheese and I love it to bits. The Spry/Best Defence path I’m less of a fan of. It’s fine, just not super enjoyable I found. The boss is fine, block damage is hefty, but the global means any symbiote can do this fight, and Venom naturally shreds it.
The real problem with this quest for me was the Flux Dispersal/Limber path. Now, if you have Doom, congrats, this path is easy as anything. For us that don’t, the Quake, Yondu and Elektra fight are hell. Why? The other champs you can counter their special 1 with a heavy to remove flux dispersal. I actually like this, it makes the player think and change up their playstyle. If they don’t want to eat a ton of block damage that is. The other champs are horrible since you can’t counter their SP1, and if you try to bait a heavy, they will eat you alive. Quake obviously places aftershocks on you if she charges her heavy, Yondu bleeds you, and Elektra will crit through your block below 25%. It’s basically killing them before you run out of parries. Which I did, but it wasn’t fun, nor interesting.
The last quest I found to be the trickiest, as you would naturally expect. The Prey On The Weak/Powerful From Afar Void gave me a bit of trouble, but it wasn’t too bad. Just a bit more challenging compared to other paths in the variant. Moving left to right, the next two paths are a joke.
Then, of course, we have the infamous improved power gain path that has pretty much become a staple of any variant at this point. This is easily the most difficult path, although it’s much easier than previous variants. Mephisto can be tricky, but I didn’t even bring my Claire and he was fine just playing around the aura.
Moving over to the right-hand side, we have a path that is fine except a Domino with stupid attack values. The critical failure just eats you alive. It’s ‘fun and interactive’, as they say.
The final Venom boss is very easy. Bait SP1 and win the game. If you can evade the SP2, this fight is very simple. Claire is great for this boss since her buff immunity doesn’t count as nullify, so you can strip him of his buffs. But Sym Supreme and Venom crushed this for me anyway.
Closing Thoughts:
Overall, this was just another variant. The rewards increase is amazing, especially for the difficulty ‘increase’. I’m not going to look back on this as content I’m particularly fond of, nor will I will look back in anger. It was fine. As for where it ranks in comparison with other variants, it, of course, depends on your roster. I would probably say V1 remains the most difficult, followed by V2, then either this one or V3, with V4 being the easiest (providing you have a 1* Hulk).
I got trash in the rewards, it’s not even worth listing. But I did get a 4->5 Mystic gem, so I have no clue who I’ll use that on. If I get my Guillotine awakened, I might take her up for fun. Other than that, I’m holding for Doom I guess.
But despite my feelings towards this variant, I look forward to the next one, which hopefully isn’t going to be another 8 or 9 months. Thanks for reading, and best of luck.
(Oh my god, how did I keep this to only 3 document pages. This feels weird.)
So, Variant 5. What do I think? Well, it was enjoyable I guess, apart from an overly passive AI refusing to throw specials half the time. That caused me a lot of frustration.
I think the most important thing I learned from this variant is that Magik only has an 85% chance to power lock on her SP2. I genuinely thought it was 100%, so I was really confused when it failed to trigger a bunch of times. Never noticed it before.
Overall, I don’t think this variant was particularly difficult, especially considering we were told it was going to be more difficult. I probably used around 600 units on the entire exploration, although I do have a fairly stacked roster. One thing I did like is that there really isn’t any ‘niche’ fights. There is an Iceman, but Sasquatch and Mephisto can take that straight up, and a bunch of mystic champs have energy resistance, which will mitigate it.
My team for this variant was pretty fluid, so I’ll just put in all the champs I used throughout since it’s important to get some sort of perspective on why I maybe found some fights alright ad others not so much.
Main Champions:
5* R5 Claire Voyant
5* R5 Stealthy
5* R5 Voodoo
5* R5 Kali
5* R5 Symbiote Supreme
5* R5 Magik
5* R5 Stark Spiderman
5* R4 Venom (Who I actually just took to R5 after exploring the variant)
Niche Champions:
6* R1 Dormammu (For Scarlet Witch)
6* R1 Mephisto (For Scarlet Witch)
4* R5 Doctor Doom (Tried him on the flux dispersal path. Didn’t go so well)
4* R5 Sasquatch (Because Iceman was a thing)
As you can tell, yes, I do like ranking up Mystic 5*s. So I had a pretty stacked team for this.
Chapter 1:
The first quest was...fine. I actually think this is one of the most difficult quests throughout the entire variant. You basically need a spider hero for the boss, otherwise, it’s hell. Debuff Immune and Bane path wasn’t too fun, but there is nothing too egregious here. The second quest was absolutely fine, the boss is super easy. The global in the first chapter is really nice. It fits that nice little area where it makes fights easier, but you don’t need it necessarily. Overall, I had no issues with this first chapter. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but I wouldn’t say it was ‘enjoyable’ either.
Chapter 2:
Let me start the second chapter by saying that the mystic global is busted. Especially with Voodoo and Kali. I cheesed so many fights with them throughout this chapter, not mention it’s great for other mystics as well.
There isn’t anything too difficult in the third quest, there is a Domino that eats you alive, but most champs with decent damage output should survive the fight, probably just barely. I’m not a fan of the Scarlet Witch though. There are only 3, soon to be 4, poison immune champs you can use in this quest, and half of them will take you 3-400 hits to finish the fight. You can burst it down with other champs if you get lucky, but for example, one run with Voodoo I revived him at 20%, went in, crit on my first hit, got heal blocked, crit on my second hit and got poisoned. Bam, dead. That was not a good feeling.
The 4th quest is probably the easiest in the entire variant if I’m being honest. The hardest fight is a Power Shield, Burden of Might, Power Efficiency Nick Fury. Which I admit, cost me a team revive. I did not enjoy that fight one bit. But the rest of the paths were either easy or actually fun. The Storm boss was a joke with Sym Supreme. I wasn’t sure what I was doing in that fight, I just know she died quickly. Overall, Chapter 2 is my favourite chapter in this variant, mainly for the mystic boost. It promotes a different playstyle with mystics and spotlights some of the lesser-used ones. As well as being borderline broken for some.
Chapter 3:
Chapter 3 is where I really felt the difficulty ramp up. Specifically, the block damage. Now, variants are pretty notorious for this, and I still don’t like it. Especially here. The Symbiote global is brilliant in theory, however, the trade-off with the likely block damage is just not worth it unless you can’t do the fight without the AAR. The path difficulty also shot up, not that it’s a bad thing it does.
The Life Transfer/Psychic Thorns path is pure cheese and I love it to bits. The Spry/Best Defence path I’m less of a fan of. It’s fine, just not super enjoyable I found. The boss is fine, block damage is hefty, but the global means any symbiote can do this fight, and Venom naturally shreds it.
The real problem with this quest for me was the Flux Dispersal/Limber path. Now, if you have Doom, congrats, this path is easy as anything. For us that don’t, the Quake, Yondu and Elektra fight are hell. Why? The other champs you can counter their special 1 with a heavy to remove flux dispersal. I actually like this, it makes the player think and change up their playstyle. If they don’t want to eat a ton of block damage that is. The other champs are horrible since you can’t counter their SP1, and if you try to bait a heavy, they will eat you alive. Quake obviously places aftershocks on you if she charges her heavy, Yondu bleeds you, and Elektra will crit through your block below 25%. It’s basically killing them before you run out of parries. Which I did, but it wasn’t fun, nor interesting.
The last quest I found to be the trickiest, as you would naturally expect. The Prey On The Weak/Powerful From Afar Void gave me a bit of trouble, but it wasn’t too bad. Just a bit more challenging compared to other paths in the variant. Moving left to right, the next two paths are a joke.
Then, of course, we have the infamous improved power gain path that has pretty much become a staple of any variant at this point. This is easily the most difficult path, although it’s much easier than previous variants. Mephisto can be tricky, but I didn’t even bring my Claire and he was fine just playing around the aura.
Moving over to the right-hand side, we have a path that is fine except a Domino with stupid attack values. The critical failure just eats you alive. It’s ‘fun and interactive’, as they say.
The final Venom boss is very easy. Bait SP1 and win the game. If you can evade the SP2, this fight is very simple. Claire is great for this boss since her buff immunity doesn’t count as nullify, so you can strip him of his buffs. But Sym Supreme and Venom crushed this for me anyway.
Closing Thoughts:
Overall, this was just another variant. The rewards increase is amazing, especially for the difficulty ‘increase’. I’m not going to look back on this as content I’m particularly fond of, nor will I will look back in anger. It was fine. As for where it ranks in comparison with other variants, it, of course, depends on your roster. I would probably say V1 remains the most difficult, followed by V2, then either this one or V3, with V4 being the easiest (providing you have a 1* Hulk).
I got trash in the rewards, it’s not even worth listing. But I did get a 4->5 Mystic gem, so I have no clue who I’ll use that on. If I get my Guillotine awakened, I might take her up for fun. Other than that, I’m holding for Doom I guess.
But despite my feelings towards this variant, I look forward to the next one, which hopefully isn’t going to be another 8 or 9 months. Thanks for reading, and best of luck.
(Oh my god, how did I keep this to only 3 document pages. This feels weird.)
6
Comments
Also great read OP, thinking of trying completion out myself.
Think I might take in my symbiote supreme for exploration, get her regen on block buff permanently and then not worry about Venom going to his SP2 because I can just block and regen.
For me the attack ratings are a bit too high, since I have a team consisting of 2 r5, 2r4, and 1 r5 4*, so I needed to use a couple of revives for completion.
But at least now I know that this part of my roster needs improving
you could say he’s a...
For me, it absolutely is. My Act 6 review couldn’t even fit in one forum post
And yes, Kali is Sorcerer Supreme. Read the EQ dialogue people, and save yourself the headache
Why didn't you call your Magik Ilyana?
I thought I was going to get slated for not falling to my knees and worshipping the variant.