Back Issues #8: Deadpoolooza!

Once upon a time, I made the best quest ever!

That's right, you thought some stuffy old designer was going to write this message, but it was ME!

It’s time for Back Issues #8, smacking you in the face on Wednesday, November 10th!

Just like those other dusty old Back Issues we dig out of the closest, THE EXCEPTIONAL DEADPOOLOOZA will let all of my lovely little Summoners relive a classic quest from the good 'ol days, available in TWO TASTY FLAVOURS:

The classic difficulty is a recreation of the original quest. While not completely 1:1, the layouts, difficulty, and dialogue are all the same as you remember. Look back with smug impunity at how easy the game used to be and flex those muscles!

The variant difficulty is a new spin on the quest, available for Summoners level 45 and up. This version features difficult challenges, new opponents, some map layout updates, and buffs that will empower your #Mercenary Champions... and ME!

... as well as those other slackers who're biting the Deadpool brand.

That means all your #Mercenary and Deadpool-family buddies are going to be juiced up and ready to fight, but all other Champions can't do much more than show up! That's right, it's MY quest, so I made it exclusively for those with excellent taste, dubious morals, or both!

The Variant Challenge

Like I literally just said, this Quest is all about me and all the wannabes. So here’s the sitch, we’ve got Global buffs for me and my homies, and we’ve got new Cross Fight buffs for all the other Mercs. Check em out!

Global Buffs

Mercs for Money: The Defender reduces all incoming damage by {95}%, unless the Attacker is #Mercenary, Deadpool, Deadpool (X-Force), Goldpool, Platinumpool, Gwenpool, Venompool, or Masacre.

Star of the Show: Obviously I should get a huge buff in these quests, I'm the original! Let's pump up all my stats, and finally put something on my SP1. (This buff supplies Deadpool (and ONLY Deadpool) bonus attack, bonus armor, bonus crit rate, increased regeneration potency, and applies a Degen effect to the Defender on a successful SP1)

We Should All Have This Power Anyways: This doesn't make sense. Why don't all my copies have the same abilities as me!? Grant Attacking Deadpool (X-Force), Goldpool, Platinumpool, Gwenpool, Venompool, or Masacre permanent Passive Regeneration of [120]% of their Max Health per minute, scaling with their Power.

Cross Fight Ability Buffs

“But Mr Thrillson!”, you might say, and I would say “Yes my sweet little cherub?”, “These don’t benefit the other #Mercenaries at all!”. And you’d be right! I did things differently this time since this is my quest and will be better than all of the other Back Issues, periodt.

Defeating Deadpooloids throughout the Quest will grant you special abilities that you can carry forward into the rest of the quest, making your Mercs stronger and stronger!

Here’s what you’ve got:

Strapped Up (Skill Deadpooloid): Defeating this Defender grants the Attacker a permanent "Strapped Up" Cross-Fight ability. "Strapped Up" causes the Attacker's Special Attacks to randomly inflict additional Debuffs for the remainder of the quest.

Starlight Acrobatics (Cosmic Deadpooloid): Defeating this Defender grants the Attacker a permanent "Starlight Acrobatics" Cross-Fight ability. "Starlight Acrobatics" grants the Attacker a Phase Passive when they dash back and hold block, causing incoming Attacks to Miss.

Bad Breath (Science Deadpooloid): Defeating this Defender grants the Attacker a permanent "Bad Breath" Cross-Fight ability. "Bad Breath" causes the Attacker to inflict Poison Debuffs on Opponents who are near them.

Sucker Punch (Mutant Deadpooloid): Defeating this Defender grants the Attacker a permanent "Sucker Punch" Cross-Fight ability. "Sucker Punch" makes the Attacker permanently Unblockable while the Opponent is above a certain HP threshold.

You Shall Not Cast (Mystic Deadpooloid): Defeating this Defender grants the Attacker a permanent "You Shall Not Cast" Cross-Fight ability. "You Shall Not Cast" grants Power Steal to the Attacker's Heavy and Special Attacks.

Cyber Hive (Tech Deadpooloid): Defeating this Defender grants the Attacker a permanent "Cyber Hive" Cross-Fight ability. "Cyber Hive" grants all of the Attacker's attacks a chance to Poison and Shock the Opponent.
Rewards
For Total Completion and Mastery of Classic Difficulty, I’ll give you...

Tier 3 Basic ISO x5
Tier 4 Basic ISO x7
Tier 2 Skill ISO x5
Tier 2 Science ISO x5
Tier 2 Tech ISO x5
Tier 2 Cosmic ISO x5
Tier 2 Mystic ISO x5
Tier 2 Mutant ISO x5
Tier 2 Basic Catalyst x3
Tier 1 Alpha Catalyst x1
Tier 4 Basic Catalyst Fragments x2700
3-Star Venom x1
Gold x9575
Units x150
Premium Hero Crystal Shards x4600
3-Star Hero Crystal Shards x2000

For Total Completion and Mastery of Variant Difficulty, you’ll score…

5-Star Rank 2 → 3 Gem x3
5-Star Rank 3 → 4 Gem (<2017 Champions) x3
5-Star Rank 4 → 5 Gem Crystal x1
5-Star Awakening Gem Crystal x1
5-Star Crystal Shards x25000
Tier 5 Basic Catalysts x3
Tier 5 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystal (25%) x1
6-Star Crystal Shards x5000
5-Star Signature Stone Crystal x48
Gold x4,000,000
Units x360

See you soon,

XOXO Thrillhouse

Comments

te_dua_shum

Rewards are weak for state of game
This isn't endgame content anymore either. If you're looking for T6B and T3A, ask Carina for a new Challenge!

Speak for yourself: I've fully explored all Variants (bar V1, only completed), Act 7 and I'm at 91% exploration for Act 6 and yet I find Variants to be extremely tough. They are end-game content for me, more than the majority of Act 6 ^_^

Ceo_Wakeford

)))

GasHauler

@Kabam Thrillson I think a majority of the people sound like they agree that Variant rewards are now a little stale, but not because of the 6* resources. I think the worst part is that you only get 1 4-5 5* rank up gem! A larger base of players’ 6* rosters are growing (a good thing for sure), but that means their 5* champs are collecting dust unranked.

Just in the past couple of months alone, I’ve pulled, duped & R2’d 6* Magneto, R2’d Warlock (soon R3), Venompool and Sorc. Supreme. Odin to R3, Mangog to R3 for war defense…

In the last few weeks I’ve pulled 6* Hercules, Domino (don’t have her as a 5*!) and Diablo, and also have Ibom, Karnak, Nebula, Storm X (and many others) sitting at R1!

Am I going to want to use any of my preciously limited T4/5 B/C and T2A Cats to R4+:

5* BWDO, CGR, Guardian, Gwenpool, IHulk, Kingpin, Kitty Pryde, Hit-Monkey, Masacre, Namor, Overseer, Platinumpool, Red Guardian, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, Stark Spidey, Sym Supreme, Thing, Thor Ragnarok, Venom, War Machine (Lots of other good ones), all of whom are really useful champs for content and I don’t have as 6* yet?

NOPE! That’s why we need more than one 5* 4-5 rank up gem! I would still like to rank some of those really nice 5* champs that are very useful for AQ, AW and story/monthly/side quest content, and not just 1 every few months when a new Variant comes out.

Chikel

Rewards are weak for state of game
For how easy variants are these days, probably too good of rewards.
Easy for a TB or veteran cav with wide rosters and experience. For people who this content is aimed at, it's probably not easy especially since the usable pool is small.
Also, even as a TB, the new variants aren't easier, I found V3 and 4 completion and exploration easier. The champions are older and the nodes easier. V5, 6 and 7 have newer champions with harder to evade specials, higher attack values and newer "fun and interactive nodes"
Pretty sure my archangel was killing people in v7 with like 5 heavies and that’s it.

To the extent that 5-7 are harder, the rewards are better to match. V4 was one of my favorite pieces of content in this game, but that Deadpool and electro were worse than any boss in 5-7, and supposedly the buffed Hulkbuster is now a jerk, though I haven’t played it myself.

AA only gets you past Ch.1. You still need to beat Miles and Venom.
V4 was also my favorite content with the exception of the 1* quest. It was a massive slog. Both Deadpool and Electro were easy soloes with Hyperion. Ibom with health boosts can also solo because of willpower (Spam sp2) I actually found the final MK boss worse because of the random evades. I only soloed him once. HB was surprisingly soloable with Colossus so long as you have willpower and don't get more than 1 shock at a time on you. The Hulk and Vision lanes were the worst.

Chikel

Rewards are weak for state of game
This isn't endgame content anymore either. If you're looking for T6B and T3A, ask Carina for a new Challenge!
Speak for yourself: I've fully explored all Variants (bar V1, only completed), Act 7 and I'm at 91% exploration for Act 6 and yet I find Variants to be extremely tough. They are end-game content for me, more than the majority of Act 6 ^_^

Yea, the recent variants have roster restrictions that are certainly endgame.

CaptNoFear13

I agree with most of the players, the rewards are Weak, most of the players are now either Cavalier or Thronebreaker level and they want to upgrade 6 star champs to compete in AQ and AW plus do higher level end game materials. Variant 8 has more emphasis on upgrading 5 star champs (like 5* awakening gem, 5* R5 champ upgrade etc) and no emphasis on upgrading 6 star champs. I was looking forward to Variant 8 and I normally have a lot fun with the Variants but it also give me the opportunity to upgrade my champs to higher level but now I am not motivated to do Variant 8 as the rewards doesn't help me in upgrading my champs to compete in current level of play. Previous Variants used to provide rewards at the current level of play. Kabam should rethink about the rewards.

AverageDesi

Rewards are weak for state of game
This isn't endgame content anymore either. If you're looking for T6B and T3A, ask Carina for a new Challenge!
Speak for yourself: I've fully explored all Variants (bar V1, only completed), Act 7 and I'm at 91% exploration for Act 6 and yet I find Variants to be extremely tough. They are end-game content for me, more than the majority of Act 6 ^_^

Wait, I thought you had everything done.

phillgreen

XOXO Thrillhouse

Sooo. What is your highest score on Bonestorm?

benshb

Hi There, basically I can't understand the meaning of this variant, the game has now shifted to using the 6s characters, even the new players (not the players who have just started), no longer use 5s, the rewards include runkup for 5s characters, some of which with the further limitation of PG under 2017, it is simply anachronistic, I refuse to think that the rewards cannot be adjusted to 2021, 48 stone 5s who are they for now? but then why the choice to keep the rewards equal to variant 7, where people were already complaining because they were anachronistic?

If you want to get rankup resources for 6*, all of act 7 is at your disposal. Variants aren't meant to be endgame content. It's a early 6.1 level, fun and challenging content. The statement that noone uses 5* anymore is just dumb. 5r5s are still really useful during act7 exploration.
Those rankup gems are really helpful too when you don't want to waste resources on 5*s and use those on 6*. It saves you t4c and t2a.

I really don't understand the complaining. I bet 90% of those who want variants to have 6* r2-3 gems and 30.678 6* shards are far from act7 and/or act6 exploration.

Also, it gives 4 mil gold and 3 whole t5b and 5k 6* shards. Its pretty good even for vets.

GENERAL_DOOM

looking at the state of the game rewards are weak, They should give more 6 star shards like 10,000.

Troy_Elric123

Oh my god 2017 , 3-4 gems. Fabulous. Amazing. 🕺 Extraordinary. So generous!!🤗 It is fantastic that we can get 2017 rewards after almost 5 years of game progression. 👏👏👏

Troy_Elric123

Rewards are weak for state of game
This isn't endgame content anymore either. If you're looking for T6B and T3A, ask Carina for a new Challenge!

2015 rank up gems were not worth the effort even in 2018-19 so, obviously there is a middle ground which is chosen to be ignored

unknown

This content has been removed.

unknown

This content has been removed.

unknown

This content has been removed.

unknown

This content has been removed.

DrZola

What frustrates me (and others) is the rankup gem restriction.

As posted in the announcement, the gem is applicable to <2017 champs—which would mean champs from 2015-2016.

Several sources like Trucos have changed the wording to ≤2017 but that’s not how it’s written in this thread.

What’s the issue? Which champs from 2017-2018 are so dangerous at 5* R4 they shouldn’t be targeted by a rankup gem? Aegon? Blade? Corvus? OR? Most have been out for 4+ years.

Honestly, it’s hard to think there’s anyone on the bottom two rows in the chart above that would be game-breaking if players with the ability to explore a chapter of variant could take them to R4.

At this point, it feels like it’s just a lack of understanding of where the game is at this point. Keep the other rewards as they are (assuming there’s no BS path that requires mystics to complete it) but update the gems.

Dr. Zola

Nalak8

I always find MCOC’s English a bit odd and grammatically off. I wonder if they outsource their writing department.

jondark86

I was hoping for more 6* crystal shards, 2 x 25% t5cc selector.... maybe a 6* Nexus for 100% exploration....

😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑

Johnnoooooo

What about the day one players like me that have literally every pre 2017 ranked up past the gems? I’ll have no use for any of them

te_dua_shum

Wait, I thought you had everything done.

Why did you think i've done everything? ^^"

Qwerty12345

I don't expect Variants to be "end game content", but at the same time, the PI of recent variants isn't much lower than the 7.4 beta, and while PI isn't everything, it is a decent indicator of relative strength of defender (if not, what is the point of it?).

And let's not compare rewards/difficulty for variant 1... there are definitely paths there that are harder than a couple of the Carina challenges.

I'm not saying V8 should have Carina challenge like rewards, but there are some thoughts that rewards should be towards 6 star champs, thus the inclusion of 6 star shards and a 25% T5CC crystal... combining that with 5 star rewards doesn't make a lot of sense.

Perhaps instead of a 4-5 gem crystal, a 6 star 1-2 gem crystal would be more appropriate for something being release in the last few weeks of 2021?

AverageDesi

Wait, I thought you had everything done.
Why did you think i've done everything? ^^"

For some reason I thought you were satsui no hadou and you reply for all gameplay questions and stuff

TheBoogyMan

Rewards don't make any sense. Are we still in 2018?

danielmath

the hardest resource by far for end game players to acquire is t5b, and this quest gives 3 full t5b!

unknown

This content has been removed.

DrZola

the hardest resource by far for end game players to acquire is t5b, and this quest gives 3 full t5b!

This is the one thing that will make me explore it.

Dr. Zola

Nihal_B

Is variant 8 coming out today or tmw UK time

Demonzfyre

Hi There, basically I can't understand the meaning of this variant, the game has now shifted to using the 6s characters, even the new players (not the players who have just started), no longer use 5s, the rewards include runkup for 5s characters, some of which with the further limitation of PG under 2017, it is simply anachronistic, I refuse to think that the rewards cannot be adjusted to 2021, 48 stone 5s who are they for now? but then why the choice to keep the rewards equal to variant 7, where people were already complaining because they were anachronistic?

There are players in varying levels of progression. After the backlash of V1 and it's difficulty, Kabam went the other direction and nerfed the difficulty to near zero.

Back issues are nothing more than updated versions of past quest meant to show people what players did back in the day. You can see the original form in the classic version and the updated version in the variant version.

The content itself isn't that hard. The rewards are really fine for as little effort there is to complete these quests. Not everyone is done with all content so those looking to expand their 5* rosters and get some extra goodies, this content is for them.

Personally, I like the T5B and gold. Always need those.

StevieManWonder

the hardest resource by far for end game players to acquire is t5b, and this quest gives 3 full t5b!

Maybe for you, I'm constantly having an abundance of t5b, what I'm always lacking is the right t4cc class for any given rank up