Wondering what the game developer team is taking to the boardroom out of this run (regardless of hitting the intended goal).
Probably shifting the limits for what is deemed “too fast” and gets banned by the system. That’s why I pre inform on the forums now so that my account doesn’t get nuked mid run 😅
Wondering what the game developer team is taking to the boardroom out of this run (regardless of hitting the intended goal).
Probably shifting the limits for what is deemed “too fast” and gets banned by the system. That’s why I pre inform on the forums now so that my account doesn’t get nuked mid run 😅
Possibly re-thinking the whole early + mid and possibly end game framework / structure if it could be blown out of water within a month by a few elect.
Wondering what the game developer team is taking to the boardroom out of this run (regardless of hitting the intended goal).
Probably shifting the limits for what is deemed “too fast” and gets banned by the system. That’s why I pre inform on the forums now so that my account doesn’t get nuked mid run 😅
Possibly re-thinking the whole early + mid and possibly end game framework / structure if it could be blown out of water within a month by a few elect.
Honestly the one I thing I would change based on the run so far is to increase the availability of iso. Yes, I realise it’s not meant to be an unlimited resource and because I’m ripping through the story, I’m using it more than most, but I still feel like more should be available in the mid game (I’m considering act 6 mid game). I currently have 10m gold on the Speedrun account that I just cannot use cause I have no iso, but still have quite a few gems and catalysts.
Day 12-13 Recap! So I decided to go with 8.1 exploration next after 8.4, I want to shred through the 6 path quests as quick as possible and they have slightly lower health pools and easier nodes. I managed to explore the first 3 quests, taking the paths remaining in act 8 down to 57, and didn’t really have any issues:
8.1.1
Red Goblin lane - ignored node and used Kate
Rocket lane - Gamora shredded cause cosmic node
Jane Foster lane - Hardest lane, but still only 1 revive. Didn’t have many counters for caustic temper and flare.
Sabretooth lane - heavy and special spam with Kate, used Chavez for Sabretooth
Luke cage lane - node doesn’t autoblock heavy attacks, so Kate and Chavez got through the node easily
All 3 bosses in this quest was fine enough, I went with red skull for 4/5 exploration lanes cause Kate shreds
8.1.2
Juggernaut lane - Kate sp1 spam with additional power gain
Punisher lane - everyone was good here cause of the weapon node making hitting block insane
Sunspot lane - Guardian crushed this lane, just let opponents throw their sp1 a lot and you get lots of furies
Black Widow lane - this was annoying tbh, cheelith was good but she applies lots of bleeds so there’s lots of power gain and opponents have ridiculous attack, 2 revives needed
Surfer lane - 800% damage sp1s, so Kate and Chavez made quick work of this
Once again all 3 bosses here weren’t too bad, decided to mostly do war machine with Kate and let him throw sp1s
8.1.3
Moon knight lane - domino and Kate was good here, shock wasn’t hitting too hard cause high health for 8.1
Wolverine lane - need a lot of dot damage for this lane, so Kate went straight through it
Civil Warrior lane - anyone can work here, but Gamora was best cause she naturally gets buffs instead of needing to dash back
Venom the duck lane - interesting interaction here. You are meant to have -90% damage unless opponent has power sting, but Kate’s coldsnaps still did normal damage. So sometimes I could ignore the node and usual Kate play
Iron fist lane - 600% damage heavy attacks, so a mix of Kate and Chavez again was very good for this
1 boss in this quest caused me an absolute nightmare cause I didn’t prepare for him 😅. The psycho man took around 3-4 revives because I didn’t have anyone good for him, plus the concussion can stop Kate’s coldsnaps.
Overall though, 3 quests explored and minimal item use so far. I’ve decided to buy the 500 unit revive pack twice as I’ll have enough units left for all the energy refills.
I’m probably going to stream for Day 14 and try to 100% 8.1, but depending on time I might fall a bit short of it. I’ll post link when I’m starting the stream again.
Day 14 Stream Recap! Was only able to do a short stream last night, so instead of doing boring generic paths I decided to do the entire Scytalis quest. It went very well with minimal item use:
Cyclops lane - pretty easy lane, I used a mix of guardian and stacking the furies from parry and using Kate coldsnap and just play around the unblockable
Punisher lane - domino purified the bleeds so much on this path so it was soooo easy. Also decided to do a fight with Kate and not really dash back
Dr Strange lane - Kate destroyed this lane because the tracking debuff means Kate does 200% more damage while the weapon is down
Stark Spidey lane - anyone can do this lane really. Gamora was good for the cosmic node but any champ works by just letting opponent hit block at the start
Miles lane - lots of parrying on this lane to get the fury and then doing bursts of damage, bit of a slog
Scytalis was pretty easy for the most part. Had to use 2 revives across the whole stream usually cause of the final 5% phase being slow and annoying, plus sometimes the traps wasn’t triggering for some reason (not sure why).
Tomorrow I’m going to 100% 8.1 and then move onto the last 2 chapters of act 8. Feel like I’m starting to close in on the endgame now but still a lot of work to do!
Wondering what the game developer team is taking to the boardroom out of this run (regardless of hitting the intended goal).
Probably shifting the limits for what is deemed “too fast” and gets banned by the system. That’s why I pre inform on the forums now so that my account doesn’t get nuked mid run 😅
Possibly re-thinking the whole early + mid and possibly end game framework / structure if it could be blown out of water within a month by a few elect.
You might be surprised. Not that the devs think it’s a good idea in general for players to zip to Valiant in a month, but the fact that it *can* be done implies some good things about the game. The game economy designers try to make sure that a player currently at progression X have what they need to eventually reach X+1 without excessive grinding or forced paywalls. The path to get there might be extremely difficult, and most players might not be able to forge that path, but the longer they play the easier that path gets (through accumulation of resources - champions, rank ups, etc). The fact that Cantona can do this at this speed doesn’t mean everyone (or anyone) else can do that, or should do that, or should try to do that, but it means as an absolute fact that there aren’t any insurmountable barriers to progress,. If there were, they would stop him in his tracks, no matter how skilled he was.
This might sound like a trivial statement to make, but it was a common problem in MMOs to have what was referred to as “content gaps.” Places in the game where a level 35 would run out of things to do that were appropriate to a level 35, and to get to level 40 they would either need to “farm the greys” (beat up easy things billions of times) or attempt to take on content ridiculously impossible for them to beat. This is proof of concept that MCOC does not have this kind of problem intrinsically.
Wondering what the game developer team is taking to the boardroom out of this run (regardless of hitting the intended goal).
Probably shifting the limits for what is deemed “too fast” and gets banned by the system. That’s why I pre inform on the forums now so that my account doesn’t get nuked mid run 😅
Possibly re-thinking the whole early + mid and possibly end game framework / structure if it could be blown out of water within a month by a few elect.
You might be surprised. Not that the devs think it’s a good idea in general for players to zip to Valiant in a month, but the fact that it *can* be done implies some good things about the game. The game economy designers try to make sure that a player currently at progression X have what they need to eventually reach X+1 without excessive grinding or forced paywalls. The path to get there might be extremely difficult, and most players might not be able to forge that path, but the longer they play the easier that path gets (through accumulation of resources - champions, rank ups, etc). The fact that Cantona can do this at this speed doesn’t mean everyone (or anyone) else can do that, or should do that, or should try to do that, but it means as an absolute fact that there aren’t any insurmountable barriers to progress,. If there were, they would stop him in his tracks, no matter how skilled he was.
This might sound like a trivial statement to make, but it was a common problem in MMOs to have what was referred to as “content gaps.” Places in the game where a level 35 would run out of things to do that were appropriate to a level 35, and to get to level 40 they would either need to “farm the greys” (beat up easy things billions of times) or attempt to take on content ridiculously impossible for them to beat. This is proof of concept that MCOC does not have this kind of problem intrinsically.
That’s a very good point actually, and kinda tracks with the reason I decided to do the challenge now. Technically I could have done a F2P Valiant Speedrun around 6 months ago, because the necropolis did exist and you could get 2 r3s from it. But there would have been a point where I was essentially just killing time and grinding units, revives, potions etc, even if I had one of the best options. The fact act 8 exists makes Valiant very achievable for practically everyone. It isn’t the most difficult content around, in fact it’s relatively easy apart from a couple paths that are kinda niche or tricky combos, but even the final bosses like Glykhan, bahamet etc, can be soloed or near soloed by just learning how they work. 1 path of necropolis is very achievable for everyone, full exploration I agree is a bit tougher from a resource point of view even with the best counters.
For example my main account is also F2P, and I explored Necropolis within 4 days of release. It cost me around 9k units plus a stash of revives and potions, but that was because I didn’t have any optimal counters (no Shuri, Kate, aegon, Wong etc). If I had to do that on this account, it would no longer be a Speedrun at that point really, and more just a normal account grinding resources.
Day 15 Recap! 8.1 Exploration is done. Wow the 36 lane chapters are such a slog to get through it’s insane, most of the fights was easy but it’s a lot of grinding to do. Had 10 paths to do to finish it up today:
8.1.4
Beast lane - Opponents take 200% damage when Kate coldsnap active, so she shredded this lane
Thor lane - Chavez crushed this, lots of special spam and big bursts of damage to keep her healed at 100%
Black panther lane - Pretty interesting lane, Kate can still activate passive stun when opponents are unblockable so utilised that here, plus cheelith can ignore unstoppable so a good duo here
Dragon man lane - Only lane I had to use a revive as I don’t have a ranked up science champ, mostly just throwing the whole team at the lane and slowly getting it down
Omega Sentinel lane - Kate’s tracking debuff meant opponents took 200% extra damage, so she once again crushed the whole lane
All 3 bosses in this quest was pretty easy, Kate works for all 3 and they are relatively generic so anybody can work
8.1.5
Night Thrasher lane - 800% sp1 damage, so Kate and Chavez duo crushed it
Venom the duck lane - matador node lets Kate throw even more specials than usual, so coldsnap ticked down every opponent. Little note that colossus is coldsnap immune, so used Chavez here to take advantage of his armour buffs
Deadpool lane - very fun lane. Essentially you can block their specials and they take 20-40% health depending on how many hits it has. Anybody can work here
Punisher lane - cosmic nodes, so Gamora was a beast here with 10+ armour breaks on opponents
Mr Fantastic lane - another weapon node that gives a massive damage buff while down. Mostly played normal with Kate and Chavez with no difficulty
Once again all 3 bosses in this quest was also easy, usually went with wasp as she has the least health so slightly faster than the other two.
So that was 8.1 100% done! Rewards from this chapter are pretty meh, and my 3 6 stars was tragic to say the least, but that doesn’t matter at this point I have all I need.
Tomorrow I’m gonna go into 8.3 exploration, as it’s only 12 lanes so a bit less of a slog than 8.2 which will be 30 lanes. Only 42 lanes to go for full exploration now 👀, and I’m starting to hoard iso to take a champ up to r3 asap.
Video for today, another 8.1 mini boss rush and the rewards opening.
Sooooo it appears the spring cleaning deals have lots of iso 👀
The poolies deals will definitely help you a lot, since they basically give out most of the materials needed to rank 3 at least one 7*. Cantona, I don't think you could have picked a better time to do this speedrun.
Sooooo it appears the spring cleaning deals have lots of iso 👀
The poolies deals will definitely help you a lot, since they basically give out most of the materials needed to rank 3 at least one 7*. Cantona, I don't think you could have picked a better time to do this speedrun.
Paragon deals is only 1 t4 alpha and the 1 t4 alpha from 8.4 exploration so I believe he would be one short still and needs to do necropolis
Sooooo it appears the spring cleaning deals have lots of iso 👀
The poolies deals will definitely help you a lot, since they basically give out most of the materials needed to rank 3 at least one 7*. Cantona, I don't think you could have picked a better time to do this speedrun.
Paragon deals is only 1 t4 alpha and the 1 t4 alpha from 8.4 exploration so I believe he would be one short still and needs to do necropolis
This, necropolis is still needed so from the deals I’m picking up a lot of iso and maybe some other random goodies. I’ve already done a load of rankups to make the rest of act 8 faster
Day 16 Recap! It seems Kabam was listening to me about needing more iso, because spring cleaning brought essentially unlimited for the account. I spent some of the poolies instantly and did some rankups:
I nearly doubled the strength of my top team, and ranked photon so that I have at least 1 ranked champ in each class for class nodes and relics for 8.3. Then I jumped into 8.3 exploration, and wow was it a breeze:
8.3.1
Antman lane - Skill champs get extra cruelty, so kate coldsnap was dealing massively increased damage making this a breeze
Sorcerer supreme lane - Science lane, so got to use my newly ranked photon. She was doing very well, but sadly died on spidey supreme so had to slowly finish with kate as I only had 25% damage
Gorr and Vulture was both pretty easy bosses, I sadly forgot to record vulture but it was just basic hits with Gamora and ramping her up more and more. Gorr slowly ticked down from Kate’s coldsnap after Chavez started the fight.
8.3.2
Gambit lane - Cosmic lane where you get aptitudes after striker, so Gamora was doing some filthy damage after a couple strikers
Kitty lane - tech lane, but essentially anyone can work here, so Kate and Chavez also did some heavy lifting
2 relatively easy bosses again in dormammu and Mephisto, Kate crushed dormammu and Mephisto was a full team effort
8.3.3
Kingpin lane - anyone can do this path, but domino can hit some ridiculous numbers if you get lucky on the specials. Kate is also fine because of the passive stun so no worries about tenacity
Sauron lane - tech lane, but the nodes are basically irrelevant. I used Kate for most of this lane as guardian was pretty slow even for mutants
Venom pool and knull was 2 soloes if I remember correctly, relatively simple nodes and Kate’s coldsnap just melts them both.
So that’s half of 8.3 explored, 6 paths to go for tomorrow including 2 Cerastes fights. Total paths left in act 8 now is down to 36, so we are closing in on that first r3 and then it’s time for the grand finale in the necropolis. My units and stash are looking very healthy too.
Video for today is another boss rush, just showing mostly how kate can absolutely destroy 80% of content.
Day 17 Recap! Another chapter of act 8 fully explored, just 1 to go now! 8.3 exploration was an absolute breeze, I used 1 revive in the whole exploration push and there was no true problem paths or bosses.
8.3.4
Elsa lane - Domino + prowess should be straight up illegal, she shredded this entire path on her own with 0 difficulties, it was usually 2-3 sp2s and dead
Massacre lane - Easy weapon node involving strikers, Kate and Chavez did the heavy lifting
Misty and Wong was both pretty easy bosses, domino and Kate wrapped them up pretty easily
8.3.5
Rocket lane - This was the only slightly hard lane, and where I used my only revive. Cosmic lane but more difficult as it has mix master and some tough defenders, so Gamora got it down in 1 revive.
Red Goblin lane - Chavez smashed this lane, lots of buffs for her to exploit, plus the striker node gives her stacking attack
Havok and bishop was both very easy here, most impressive one was Gamora soloing havok with no armour up for 80% of the fight and the damage just going nuts.
8.3.6
Hyperion lane - another lane that Chavez destroys, stops any defenders power gain and can heal up any damage taken with sp2
Dr Voodoo lane - I took photon to r5 for this lane (because I can) and she just destroyed it. It’s essentially striker spam and laying into the opponent cause they have the crush debuff
Now the most surprising bit of this whole chapter was what Gamora did to Cerastes. This was honestly disgustingly overpowered, the fight works in a way where Gamora ramps insanely fast and does crazy damage in all the wounded phases. The videos will show, but my 2 runs was both solos and took 5 and 4 mins. I honestly expected 10-12 mins per run.
8.3 rewards wasn’t really game changing, but at this point only the r3s are for the account. I got a science 4-5 gem (straight after photon rank with generic 🙃), and the 7 star Crystal was a spider Gwen who isn’t doing anything for me let’s be honest.
Tomorrow it’s onto 8.2, the final slog through act 8 towards the first r3. I expect it to take 2-3 days, and then necropolis the day after to hopefully finish on day 21 at the latest. I have all the iso, can use class crystals to get any 7 star class champ if needed, and will get all the gems needed. It’s just getting through it now and racing to the finish line.
Upload for today, another 8.3 boss rush including both Cerastes runs at the end:
Day 17 Recap! Another chapter of act 8 fully explored, just 1 to go now! 8.3 exploration was an absolute breeze, I used 1 revive in the whole exploration push and there was no true problem paths or bosses.
8.3.4
Elsa lane - Domino + prowess should be straight up illegal, she shredded this entire path on her own with 0 difficulties, it was usually 2-3 sp2s and dead
Massacre lane - Easy weapon node involving strikers, Kate and Chavez did the heavy lifting
Misty and Wong was both pretty easy bosses, domino and Kate wrapped them up pretty easily
8.3.5
Rocket lane - This was the only slightly hard lane, and where I used my only revive. Cosmic lane but more difficult as it has mix master and some tough defenders, so Gamora got it down in 1 revive.
Red Goblin lane - Chavez smashed this lane, lots of buffs for her to exploit, plus the striker node gives her stacking attack
Havok and bishop was both very easy here, most impressive one was Gamora soloing havok with no armour up for 80% of the fight and the damage just going nuts.
8.3.6
Hyperion lane - another lane that Chavez destroys, stops any defenders power gain and can heal up any damage taken with sp2
Dr Voodoo lane - I took photon to r5 for this lane (because I can) and she just destroyed it. It’s essentially striker spam and laying into the opponent cause they have the crush debuff
Now the most surprising bit of this whole chapter was what Gamora did to Cerastes. This was honestly disgustingly overpowered, the fight works in a way where Gamora ramps insanely fast and does crazy damage in all the wounded phases. The videos will show, but my 2 runs was both solos and took 5 and 4 mins. I honestly expected 10-12 mins per run.
8.3 rewards wasn’t really game changing, but at this point only the r3s are for the account. I got a science 4-5 gem (straight after photon rank with generic 🙃), and the 7 star Crystal was a spider Gwen who isn’t doing anything for me let’s be honest.
Tomorrow it’s onto 8.2, the final slog through act 8 towards the first r3. I expect it to take 2-3 days, and then necropolis the day after to hopefully finish on day 21 at the latest. I have all the iso, can use class crystals to get any 7 star class champ if needed, and will get all the gems needed. It’s just getting through it now and racing to the finish line.
Upload for today, another 8.3 boss rush including both Cerastes runs at the end:
Day 18 Recap! 20 paths left to go! Another 10 paths knocked out today, fully exploring 8.2.1 and 8.2.2. It was actually harder than 8.3 exploration, and I did have to use a few revives at certain parts:
8.2.1
Cyclops lane - Pretty simple, it’s tech nodes but you can use anyone, so Kate and Chavez did the most but Gamora was sacrificed to take down havok
Loki lane - Science nodes, so Photon was very good here. Not having willpower did make me use a few potions, but that’s fine overall
Warlock lane - Gamora crushed this lane, you get extra attack per unique buff, so after throwing an sp3 you get 150% attack on top of all the furies and cruelty
Abomination lane - tricky, but no revives. Most of the fights was fully unblockable because all of my strong champs are heroes weirdly, so couldn’t use the villain node
Venompool lane - Easy weapon node, it made Chavez even more supercharged as opponents take 400% extra damage while stunned so heavies going crazy
All 3 bosses in this quest are pretty simple. Scarlet witch sigil is an interesting fight for Gamora as you get an insane amount of furies. No revives here, but it was 8.2.2 that got frustrating.
8.2.2
Dr voodoo lane - Had to bring out the r2 red hulk for man thing, but overall this lane wasn’t too horrible. Emp mod caused a few of my champs to die, but got it over the line reviveless
Namor lane - Pretty simple, just some extra healing on this lane so a bit longer to get down, Kate coldsnap still overpowered easily though
Stark Spidey lane - Safeguard lane, so Kate’s coldsnap even more important than usual, defenders on this lane are pretty easy so she breezed through
Hela lane - Now this was where it got brutal, the super skrull at the end of this path caught me so off guard and made me use 2 revives. Essentially this lane gives a lot of armour buffs that can then become furies, and super skrull goes unblockable when he has enough buffs. He hit me with so many sp2s it wasn’t even funny, plus I was hitting like a noodle cause of all the armour. Not fun 🙃
Night thrasher lane - Thankfully an easy lane to finish, Kate ripped through this lane with a bit of help from Chavez
Onto the bosses, 2 of which was very simple and easy to fight. But that Deadpool is an absolute demon. Lots of healing, inverted controls on specials, and constantly taunting you to reduce your damage. I only fought him once, but had to use a revive to finish him off with domino cause she was failing his aggression regen.
Overall, not terrible but not ideal, a couple revives used on random things I didn’t expect, but that makes sense cause I last explored this content around 14 months ago.
Tomorrow I’m gonna try and knock out at least 10 more lanes, and then the day after I’m gonna stream getting the act 8 100% exploration and the first r3 of the account.
Upload for today, 8.2 bosses so you get to see me get destroyed by Deadpool 😅
Blisteringly fast! What is your revive and unit stash looking like, for necropolis? Assuming Kate is going to do most of it?
Currently I have around 50 single revives, 10 team revives and 1.5k units left on the account (I bought 20 energy refills in bulk for 8.2). I plan to get one of the eq 500 unit deals for some 30% champion boosts so I have a pretty good stash for it. And yeah, Kate will be the carry for necropolis
Blisteringly fast! What is your revive and unit stash looking like, for necropolis? Assuming Kate is going to do most of it?
Currently I have around 50 single revives, 10 team revives and 1.5k units left on the account (I bought 20 energy refills in bulk for 8.2). I plan to get one of the eq 500 unit deals for some 30% champion boosts so I have a pretty good stash for it. And yeah, Kate will be the carry for necropolis
Comments
That’s why I pre inform on the forums now so that my account doesn’t get nuked mid run 😅
I currently have 10m gold on the Speedrun account that I just cannot use cause I have no iso, but still have quite a few gems and catalysts.
Day 12-13 Recap!
So I decided to go with 8.1 exploration next after 8.4, I want to shred through the 6 path quests as quick as possible and they have slightly lower health pools and easier nodes.
I managed to explore the first 3 quests, taking the paths remaining in act 8 down to 57, and didn’t really have any issues:
8.1.1
Red Goblin lane - ignored node and used Kate
Rocket lane - Gamora shredded cause cosmic node
Jane Foster lane - Hardest lane, but still only 1 revive. Didn’t have many counters for caustic temper and flare.
Sabretooth lane - heavy and special spam with Kate, used Chavez for Sabretooth
Luke cage lane - node doesn’t autoblock heavy attacks, so Kate and Chavez got through the node easily
All 3 bosses in this quest was fine enough, I went with red skull for 4/5 exploration lanes cause Kate shreds
8.1.2
Juggernaut lane - Kate sp1 spam with additional power gain
Punisher lane - everyone was good here cause of the weapon node making hitting block insane
Sunspot lane - Guardian crushed this lane, just let opponents throw their sp1 a lot and you get lots of furies
Black Widow lane - this was annoying tbh, cheelith was good but she applies lots of bleeds so there’s lots of power gain and opponents have ridiculous attack, 2 revives needed
Surfer lane - 800% damage sp1s, so Kate and Chavez made quick work of this
Once again all 3 bosses here weren’t too bad, decided to mostly do war machine with Kate and let him throw sp1s
8.1.3
Moon knight lane - domino and Kate was good here, shock wasn’t hitting too hard cause high health for 8.1
Wolverine lane - need a lot of dot damage for this lane, so Kate went straight through it
Civil Warrior lane - anyone can work here, but Gamora was best cause she naturally gets buffs instead of needing to dash back
Venom the duck lane - interesting interaction here. You are meant to have -90% damage unless opponent has power sting, but Kate’s coldsnaps still did normal damage. So sometimes I could ignore the node and usual Kate play
Iron fist lane - 600% damage heavy attacks, so a mix of Kate and Chavez again was very good for this
1 boss in this quest caused me an absolute nightmare cause I didn’t prepare for him 😅. The psycho man took around 3-4 revives because I didn’t have anyone good for him, plus the concussion can stop Kate’s coldsnaps.
Overall though, 3 quests explored and minimal item use so far. I’ve decided to buy the 500 unit revive pack twice as I’ll have enough units left for all the energy refills.
I’m probably going to stream for Day 14 and try to 100% 8.1, but depending on time I might fall a bit short of it. I’ll post link when I’m starting the stream again.
Video for today, just showing all the bosses from 8.1.1 to 8.1.3
Short Stream Tonight sadly, so gonna do all the 8.1.6 Scytalis lanes so that its some exciting fights
Day 14 Stream Recap!
Was only able to do a short stream last night, so instead of doing boring generic paths I decided to do the entire Scytalis quest. It went very well with minimal item use:
Cyclops lane - pretty easy lane, I used a mix of guardian and stacking the furies from parry and using Kate coldsnap and just play around the unblockable
Punisher lane - domino purified the bleeds so much on this path so it was soooo easy. Also decided to do a fight with Kate and not really dash back
Dr Strange lane - Kate destroyed this lane because the tracking debuff means Kate does 200% more damage while the weapon is down
Stark Spidey lane - anyone can do this lane really. Gamora was good for the cosmic node but any champ works by just letting opponent hit block at the start
Miles lane - lots of parrying on this lane to get the fury and then doing bursts of damage, bit of a slog
Scytalis was pretty easy for the most part. Had to use 2 revives across the whole stream usually cause of the final 5% phase being slow and annoying, plus sometimes the traps wasn’t triggering for some reason (not sure why).
Tomorrow I’m going to 100% 8.1 and then move onto the last 2 chapters of act 8. Feel like I’m starting to close in on the endgame now but still a lot of work to do!
This might sound like a trivial statement to make, but it was a common problem in MMOs to have what was referred to as “content gaps.” Places in the game where a level 35 would run out of things to do that were appropriate to a level 35, and to get to level 40 they would either need to “farm the greys” (beat up easy things billions of times) or attempt to take on content ridiculously impossible for them to beat. This is proof of concept that MCOC does not have this kind of problem intrinsically.
Technically I could have done a F2P Valiant Speedrun around 6 months ago, because the necropolis did exist and you could get 2 r3s from it. But there would have been a point where I was essentially just killing time and grinding units, revives, potions etc, even if I had one of the best options.
The fact act 8 exists makes Valiant very achievable for practically everyone. It isn’t the most difficult content around, in fact it’s relatively easy apart from a couple paths that are kinda niche or tricky combos, but even the final bosses like Glykhan, bahamet etc, can be soloed or near soloed by just learning how they work. 1 path of necropolis is very achievable for everyone, full exploration I agree is a bit tougher from a resource point of view even with the best counters.
For example my main account is also F2P, and I explored Necropolis within 4 days of release. It cost me around 9k units plus a stash of revives and potions, but that was because I didn’t have any optimal counters (no Shuri, Kate, aegon, Wong etc). If I had to do that on this account, it would no longer be a Speedrun at that point really, and more just a normal account grinding resources.
Day 15 Recap!
8.1 Exploration is done. Wow the 36 lane chapters are such a slog to get through it’s insane, most of the fights was easy but it’s a lot of grinding to do.
Had 10 paths to do to finish it up today:
8.1.4
Beast lane - Opponents take 200% damage when Kate coldsnap active, so she shredded this lane
Thor lane - Chavez crushed this, lots of special spam and big bursts of damage to keep her healed at 100%
Black panther lane - Pretty interesting lane, Kate can still activate passive stun when opponents are unblockable so utilised that here, plus cheelith can ignore unstoppable so a good duo here
Dragon man lane - Only lane I had to use a revive as I don’t have a ranked up science champ, mostly just throwing the whole team at the lane and slowly getting it down
Omega Sentinel lane - Kate’s tracking debuff meant opponents took 200% extra damage, so she once again crushed the whole lane
All 3 bosses in this quest was pretty easy, Kate works for all 3 and they are relatively generic so anybody can work
8.1.5
Night Thrasher lane - 800% sp1 damage, so Kate and Chavez duo crushed it
Venom the duck lane - matador node lets Kate throw even more specials than usual, so coldsnap ticked down every opponent. Little note that colossus is coldsnap immune, so used Chavez here to take advantage of his armour buffs
Deadpool lane - very fun lane. Essentially you can block their specials and they take 20-40% health depending on how many hits it has. Anybody can work here
Punisher lane - cosmic nodes, so Gamora was a beast here with 10+ armour breaks on opponents
Mr Fantastic lane - another weapon node that gives a massive damage buff while down. Mostly played normal with Kate and Chavez with no difficulty
Once again all 3 bosses in this quest was also easy, usually went with wasp as she has the least health so slightly faster than the other two.
So that was 8.1 100% done! Rewards from this chapter are pretty meh, and my 3 6 stars was tragic to say the least, but that doesn’t matter at this point I have all I need.
Tomorrow I’m gonna go into 8.3 exploration, as it’s only 12 lanes so a bit less of a slog than 8.2 which will be 30 lanes. Only 42 lanes to go for full exploration now 👀, and I’m starting to hoard iso to take a champ up to r3 asap.
Video for today, another 8.1 mini boss rush and the rewards opening.
I’ve already done a load of rankups to make the rest of act 8 faster
Day 16 Recap!
It seems Kabam was listening to me about needing more iso, because spring cleaning brought essentially unlimited for the account. I spent some of the poolies instantly and did some rankups:
Chavez, r4 lvl 1 —> r5 lvl 65
Domino, r1 lvl 25 —> r2 lvl 35
Gamora, r1 lvl 1 —> r2 lvl 35
Guardian, r4 lvl 1 —> r4 lvl 55
Photon, r1 lvl 1 —> r3 lvl 45
I nearly doubled the strength of my top team, and ranked photon so that I have at least 1 ranked champ in each class for class nodes and relics for 8.3.
Then I jumped into 8.3 exploration, and wow was it a breeze:
8.3.1
Antman lane - Skill champs get extra cruelty, so kate coldsnap was dealing massively increased damage making this a breeze
Sorcerer supreme lane - Science lane, so got to use my newly ranked photon. She was doing very well, but sadly died on spidey supreme so had to slowly finish with kate as I only had 25% damage
Gorr and Vulture was both pretty easy bosses, I sadly forgot to record vulture but it was just basic hits with Gamora and ramping her up more and more. Gorr slowly ticked down from Kate’s coldsnap after Chavez started the fight.
8.3.2
Gambit lane - Cosmic lane where you get aptitudes after striker, so Gamora was doing some filthy damage after a couple strikers
Kitty lane - tech lane, but essentially anyone can work here, so Kate and Chavez also did some heavy lifting
2 relatively easy bosses again in dormammu and Mephisto, Kate crushed dormammu and Mephisto was a full team effort
8.3.3
Kingpin lane - anyone can do this path, but domino can hit some ridiculous numbers if you get lucky on the specials. Kate is also fine because of the passive stun so no worries about tenacity
Sauron lane - tech lane, but the nodes are basically irrelevant. I used Kate for most of this lane as guardian was pretty slow even for mutants
Venom pool and knull was 2 soloes if I remember correctly, relatively simple nodes and Kate’s coldsnap just melts them both.
So that’s half of 8.3 explored, 6 paths to go for tomorrow including 2 Cerastes fights. Total paths left in act 8 now is down to 36, so we are closing in on that first r3 and then it’s time for the grand finale in the necropolis. My units and stash are looking very healthy too.
Video for today is another boss rush, just showing mostly how kate can absolutely destroy 80% of content.
Necropolis will be the big finish, so probably around day 20 or 21 to get this done within 3 weeks.
Day 17 Recap!
Another chapter of act 8 fully explored, just 1 to go now! 8.3 exploration was an absolute breeze, I used 1 revive in the whole exploration push and there was no true problem paths or bosses.
8.3.4
Elsa lane - Domino + prowess should be straight up illegal, she shredded this entire path on her own with 0 difficulties, it was usually 2-3 sp2s and dead
Massacre lane - Easy weapon node involving strikers, Kate and Chavez did the heavy lifting
Misty and Wong was both pretty easy bosses, domino and Kate wrapped them up pretty easily
8.3.5
Rocket lane - This was the only slightly hard lane, and where I used my only revive. Cosmic lane but more difficult as it has mix master and some tough defenders, so Gamora got it down in 1 revive.
Red Goblin lane - Chavez smashed this lane, lots of buffs for her to exploit, plus the striker node gives her stacking attack
Havok and bishop was both very easy here, most impressive one was Gamora soloing havok with no armour up for 80% of the fight and the damage just going nuts.
8.3.6
Hyperion lane - another lane that Chavez destroys, stops any defenders power gain and can heal up any damage taken with sp2
Dr Voodoo lane - I took photon to r5 for this lane (because I can) and she just destroyed it. It’s essentially striker spam and laying into the opponent cause they have the crush debuff
Now the most surprising bit of this whole chapter was what Gamora did to Cerastes. This was honestly disgustingly overpowered, the fight works in a way where Gamora ramps insanely fast and does crazy damage in all the wounded phases. The videos will show, but my 2 runs was both solos and took 5 and 4 mins. I honestly expected 10-12 mins per run.
8.3 rewards wasn’t really game changing, but at this point only the r3s are for the account. I got a science 4-5 gem (straight after photon rank with generic 🙃), and the 7 star Crystal was a spider Gwen who isn’t doing anything for me let’s be honest.
Tomorrow it’s onto 8.2, the final slog through act 8 towards the first r3. I expect it to take 2-3 days, and then necropolis the day after to hopefully finish on day 21 at the latest. I have all the iso, can use class crystals to get any 7 star class champ if needed, and will get all the gems needed. It’s just getting through it now and racing to the finish line.
Upload for today, another 8.3 boss rush including both Cerastes runs at the end:
Day 18 Recap!
20 paths left to go! Another 10 paths knocked out today, fully exploring 8.2.1 and 8.2.2. It was actually harder than 8.3 exploration, and I did have to use a few revives at certain parts:
8.2.1
Cyclops lane - Pretty simple, it’s tech nodes but you can use anyone, so Kate and Chavez did the most but Gamora was sacrificed to take down havok
Loki lane - Science nodes, so Photon was very good here. Not having willpower did make me use a few potions, but that’s fine overall
Warlock lane - Gamora crushed this lane, you get extra attack per unique buff, so after throwing an sp3 you get 150% attack on top of all the furies and cruelty
Abomination lane - tricky, but no revives. Most of the fights was fully unblockable because all of my strong champs are heroes weirdly, so couldn’t use the villain node
Venompool lane - Easy weapon node, it made Chavez even more supercharged as opponents take 400% extra damage while stunned so heavies going crazy
All 3 bosses in this quest are pretty simple. Scarlet witch sigil is an interesting fight for Gamora as you get an insane amount of furies. No revives here, but it was 8.2.2 that got frustrating.
8.2.2
Dr voodoo lane - Had to bring out the r2 red hulk for man thing, but overall this lane wasn’t too horrible. Emp mod caused a few of my champs to die, but got it over the line reviveless
Namor lane - Pretty simple, just some extra healing on this lane so a bit longer to get down, Kate coldsnap still overpowered easily though
Stark Spidey lane - Safeguard lane, so Kate’s coldsnap even more important than usual, defenders on this lane are pretty easy so she breezed through
Hela lane - Now this was where it got brutal, the super skrull at the end of this path caught me so off guard and made me use 2 revives. Essentially this lane gives a lot of armour buffs that can then become furies, and super skrull goes unblockable when he has enough buffs. He hit me with so many sp2s it wasn’t even funny, plus I was hitting like a noodle cause of all the armour. Not fun 🙃
Night thrasher lane - Thankfully an easy lane to finish, Kate ripped through this lane with a bit of help from Chavez
Onto the bosses, 2 of which was very simple and easy to fight. But that Deadpool is an absolute demon. Lots of healing, inverted controls on specials, and constantly taunting you to reduce your damage. I only fought him once, but had to use a revive to finish him off with domino cause she was failing his aggression regen.
Overall, not terrible but not ideal, a couple revives used on random things I didn’t expect, but that makes sense cause I last explored this content around 14 months ago.
Tomorrow I’m gonna try and knock out at least 10 more lanes, and then the day after I’m gonna stream getting the act 8 100% exploration and the first r3 of the account.
Upload for today, 8.2 bosses so you get to see me get destroyed by Deadpool 😅
And yeah, Kate will be the carry for necropolis