**WINTER OF WOE - BONUS OBJECTIVE POINT**
As previously announced, the team will be distributing an additional point toward milestones to anyone who completed the Absorbing Man fight in the first step of the Winter of Woe.
This point will be distributed at a later time as it requires the team to pull and analyze data.
The timeline has not been set, but work has started.
There is currently an issue where some Alliances are are unable to find a match in Alliance Wars, or are receiving Byes without getting the benefits of the Win. We will be adjusting the Season Points of the Alliances that are affected within the coming weeks, and will be working to compensate them for their missed Per War rewards as well.

Additionally, we are working to address an issue where new Members of an Alliance are unable to place Defenders for the next War after joining. We are working to address this, but it will require a future update.

Variant 5: Blood and Venom: Guide and Review

StevieManWonderStevieManWonder Posts: 5,017 ★★★★★
First off, I want to say that this variant is by far my favorite one and the most enjoyable. However, it does have some key downfalls that I will get into later, but I still give it a solid 8.5/10 (for reference, Variant 1 is 5/10, 2 is 8/10, Variant 3 is 7/10, and Variant 4 is 5.5/10). Path Numbers will be from left to right.
Champions Used (In Order of Usefulness): Doom (5/65 sig200), Starky (5/65 sig138), Venom (5/65 sig40), Sym Supreme (6r3 sig20), BWCV (5/65 sig2), Doc Voodoo (4/55 sig20), Doom (6r1 unawakened), and Stealthy (5/65 unawakened).

Chapter 1 Quest 1: Captain Marvel Boss
Path 1 (90% Armor and Strike Back):
There is not too much to say about this path, it was very straightforward and I thought it was easy. I used Starky or Doom for every fight except for Havok, who I used Venom for. The Havok was the only issue on the path, but it was only because the first time I took him on, Venom would not roll an Armor Up buff and I died to the plasma detonation.
Path 2 (Energize 1, Enhanced/Special 1 Bias):
Another easy path, used either Starky or Doom for the fights. Both pretty much allow you to ignore the nuisance of the energize node.
Path 3 (Debuff Immune and Bane):
This path sucked. Used either Starky or Venom for everything other than Man-Thing, who I used Doom for (in hindsight, I should have brought in Claire for that fight since Doom can still be poisoned by Man-Thing). I also used Doom for the Hulkbuster fight (that shock damage is no joke).
Boss: Captain Marvel Classic (90% Armor, Mighty Charge 3, Debuff Immune, Mystic Ward, and Heavy Handed):
After getting used to the Mighty Charge node again, this fight was fairly straightforward with Doom. The best rotation is to just keep her in the corner and bait heavy attacks and cycle Sp3s.

1.2: Gamora Boss
Path 1: Breakthrough, Armor Break Immune:
This is an easy path other than Iceman. If you don't have Mephisto ranked up, this can be a potential roadblock. Since I do not have Mephisto above 1/25, I used Claire for this fight. The trick is to just dodge and parry Iceman while the initial Coldsnap is active and build up to your sp2 while in Curse of Blood. So long as you don't get hit, you won't die from the Coldsnap damage. Once it ends, just cycle back Sp2s until you are at full health. Easy peasy.
Path 2: Stun Immune/Unblockable Specials:
This path is alright. It's tough, but fair. Every defender has at least one easy to dex special and don't need to be parried (other than NC). Ebony Maw was the only really tough fight and I used Stealthy for that one to bypass his Falter. It's best to just slow play this fight and bait the sp1. After baiting his sp1, wait until the fury he gives you expires before baiting the next otherwise you will take a good chunk of degen damage. With NC, you have to switch him out of his Evade mode. If you can do that, then the fight it is easy.
Path 3: Oscillate:
Yay! Everyone loves Oscillate, right? Annoyance with Oscillate aside, this path is straightforward. It's best to have a solid mystic to counter the Annilihus (I used my Sym and it was a piece of cake).
Path 4: Energize 1, Enhanced Abilities, Outlast:
Energize is more of an annoyance here than anything else. You're gonna have to bait a lot of specials unless you are using Doom, who I strongly recommend. The biggest problem on this path is Wasp if you don't have Doom since that shock damage is gnarly. Of course, you can just parry/heavy her, but the block damage is very noticeable.
Boss: Gamora (Stun Immune, Oscillate, Unblockable Specials, Godslayer, Critical Rate):
Well, this fight is really easy IMO. I used Sym for three of the four runs and got easy soloes, but I also took her down with Starky once too. Just focus on intercepting and baiting specials.

Chapter 1's Global Buff: Great Responsibility:
It's useless. It never really came into play for me, even when I was using Starky. Really, it's pretty much pointless to have and it doesn't affect the fights in a significant manner.

2.1: Scarlet Witch Boss
Path 1: Fury, Fair is Fair, Dulled:
Voodoo Cheese. That's it. That's pretty much all of Chapter 2: Voodoo Cheese.
Path 2: Debilitate, Power Alternator:
Voodoo Cheese.
Path 3: Power Focus, Enhanced Sp1, Aggression Prowess:
Voodoo Cheese, Doom for Vision Aarkus.
Path 4: Personal Space:
Voodoo Cheese except for Torch, Mephisto, and Korg. For Torch and Mephisto I used Claire and just switched to her incinerate phase as quickly as possible. For Torch, you are always going to be able to get to it no problem, but with Mephisto, you can easily get really unlucky and trigger his Aura before you get to it and then you're pretty much dead. Korg is just another Doom fight.
Boss: Scarlet Witch: Vivified 1, Debilitate, Aggression Cruelty, and Enhanced Specials.
Bring. A. Poison. Immune. I totally forgot that SW can poison you randomly and man that poison will melt you, especially if she also heal blocks you. If you use a poison immune (like Claire), then this fight is fun and kinda challenging, but not really. It's best to bait the sp2 since it's the easiest to dodge.

2.2: Storm Boss:
Path 1: Recharge, Adaptive, Enhanced Abilities:
Voodoo Cheese
Path 2: Recharge, Adaptive, Enhanced Abilities:
Voodoo Cheese
Path 3: Aspect of Evolution, Bleed Vulnerability:
Voodoo Cheese
Path 4: Arc Overload, Pessimist, Optimist:
Voodoo Cheese
Path 5: Power Shield, Burden of Might, Power Efficiency:
Other than Red Guardian, Voodoo Cheese. For RG, you can use anyone.
Boss: Storm (Adaptive, Arc Overload, Aspect of Evolution, Burden of Might, Bleed Vulnerability):
Voodoo Cheese or Sym Supreme Cheese.

Chapter 2's Global Buff: Arcane Torrent:
It. Is. Voodoo. Cheese. Seriously, even a maxed four star Voodoo would be a monster for these fights. Just. Like, it's so fun to just murder everything with an r4 Voodoo. So much fun.

3.1: Sym Spidey Boss:
Path 1: Limber and Flux Dispersal.
Other than Quake, Doom is really good for this path since he doesn't need to parry to remove the Flux Dispersal. For the Quake fight, just bring in a champion that you're prepared to sacrifice to get her most of the way down. As a side note, I can never consistently dex Quake's sp1 and with the beefy attack values, even just two of her aftershock charges will take down a big chunk of your health.
Path 2: Spry, Best Defense
I used Venom for Spider-Man, Starky (parry heavy) for MODOK, and Doom for the rest. In hindsight, I could have used Venom for all these fights given the nature of the global buff.
Path 3: Life Transfer and Psychic Thorns:
This path was made for Doom. So, so easy with him.
Path 4: Backup Recovery and Redoubled Determination:
For this path, I mostly used Venom, Starky, and Doom. Fairly straightforward.
Boss: Sym Spidey (Spry, Best Defense, Energize, Kinetic Transference, Limber):
Currently, Spry and Best Defense are bugged. If you stun Sym Spidey and then launch a special attack, he won't evade, but he still gains power and places fatigues on you like he did evade, so just use Venom and bait the sp2s.

3.2: Venom Boss:
Path 1: Prey on the Weak, Powerful From Afar
This path is perfect Doom cheese if he is awakened, but do not use Doom for Sym Supreme otherwise you will die from the nullification damage. I used Starky for him. (Side note, as I go back in the quest to write this now, there are 2(!) revives on this path, so looks like I'll be doing this path again later!).
Path 2: Mystic Ward, Aggression Fury, Aggression Regen:
Mostly straightforward. You can use most anyone for this path, I used Venom and Claire a lot here.
Path 3: Outlast, Buff Duration:
Straightfoward path. Nullify your way to victory.
Path 4: Improved Power Gain:
I always, always die at least to Improved Power Gain Doctor Stranges. Doesn't matter where he is, I will die to him. Every time. At least once. I hate him so much. Anyways, other than Mephisto, it's a straightforward path. Same issue with Mephisto here as the last one I mentioned.
Path 5: Rapid Metabolism 3:
This node doesn't really matter too much for the fights. The only hard fight is Domino and that's because she can and will crit fail you to death. I died three times to her without taking a single hit.
Boss: Venom (Enhanced Sp2, Anamnesis, Energize 1, Buff Duration, Mystic Ward, Outlast):
Oh Venom. How I hate fighting you and your uber aggressive AI, especially when you have Enhanced sp2 since that special is so hard to evade fully. If you have Sym Supreme, this fight gets a lot easier, even though you can't really nullify his buffs. How I found it easiest to beat him is to wait until I get my sp3 (or just get to the protection buff in general) and then push him to an sp3. With the Protection buff and Armor phase, you won't take too much damage and you will then be able to cycle Sp2s really easy. If you can do that, then it's easy game, easy life. If not, prepare to get battered by Venom's demonic AI.

Chapter 3's Global Buff: Genetic Recalibration:
It's alright? Like, it's useful sometimes, but it's nothing really special. It doesn't make it better to use Venom over Doom or Claire or Sym for about 85% of the fights.

My issues with the Variant:
The Global Buffs, other than Arcane Torrent, were just plain boring and mostly useless. Great Responsibility did not incentivize me to use Spiderverse heroes nor did it really reward me for using them when I did. Genetic Recalibration does this a little better, but it's still not rewarding enough to use Venom over a strong Mystic in chapter 3. Variant 2 did the whole global buffs a lot better, which is why Variant 5 didn't get a higher score.

Overall, I loved this variant.
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Comments

  • The_enlightenedThe_enlightened Posts: 545 ★★★
    I agree with the unique global buffs compared to the other variants that had unique globales seemed kinda meh minus the mystic one.
    V2 had crazy fun ones
    3 made sent so much fun and helped tech champs a lot

    The spiderverse one seemed kinda pointless since most of them have already high Crit chance.

    Venom one could have been better if they add a bit more like maybe potency of buff by 50%. I rly don’t like the hold block aspect especially with the block damag, and that if there is AAR you won’t get charges sometimes
    Mystic one was fun

    For venom the 100% power gain was a bit overkill 50% would have been just fine.I used Magik mainly and a few times he’d randomly throw the sp2 in my block out of nowhere
  • JerkobsonJerkobson Posts: 163 ★★
    edited August 2020
    I found Longshot to be an MVP. He solo’d the gamora and venom boss. And the VTD cheese kill of captain marvel.

    Totally agree about the global buffs, only one really worth it is the second chapter one.
  • StevieManWonderStevieManWonder Posts: 5,017 ★★★★★
    Jerkobson said:

    I found Longshot to be an MVP. He solo’d the gamora and venom boss. And the VTD cheese kill of captain marvel.

    Totally agree about the global buffs, only one really worth it is the second chapter one.

    My ally mate said Longshot was a beast for him, but I don’t have Longshot yet so I didn’t use him and my VtD is only r3.
  • spaceoctopusspaceoctopus Posts: 1,111 ★★★
    You can also use Doom with SymSup synergy for iceman, just throw that s1 as soon as you can and hope the coin flip lands on your side.
  • The_enlightenedThe_enlightened Posts: 545 ★★★
    One more thing I’d like to add is how short this one felt.
    The paths were rly short and even the 3 energy ones didn’t sting if you decided to back out
  • Papicante1Papicante1 Posts: 35
    Does voodoo need to be awakened to be able to cheese chapter 2?
  • The_enlightenedThe_enlightened Posts: 545 ★★★

    Does voodoo need to be awakened to be able to cheese chapter 2?

    I don’t think so
    Unduped will make the fight take longer to ramp up
  • JerkobsonJerkobson Posts: 163 ★★
    Oh, Morningstar was also a big player in clearing lanes.
  • KDSuperFlash10KDSuperFlash10 Posts: 5,869 ★★★★★
    Awesome write up. I'll read this again once I do my run in V5.
  • Soyheyor123Soyheyor123 Posts: 395 ★★

    Does voodoo need to be awakened to be able to cheese chapter 2?

    the ramp up will be slower because the sig allows him to have a 10% chance to place loas due to the increased aa. but he will eventually ramp up and place loas on every hit and ramp up even more
    Sorry for bothering, but wdym by ramp up with vodoo, how I suppose to play him? I use to throw sp2 with the even combo and that's it
  • StevieManWonderStevieManWonder Posts: 5,017 ★★★★★

    Does voodoo need to be awakened to be able to cheese chapter 2?

    the ramp up will be slower because the sig allows him to have a 10% chance to place loas due to the increased aa. but he will eventually ramp up and place loas on every hit and ramp up even more
    Sorry for bothering, but wdym by ramp up with vodoo, how I suppose to play him? I use to throw sp2 with the even combo and that's it
    So in Chapter 2, Arcane Torrent gives you 25% increased ability accuracy and 10% increased attack per buff on the opponent and Voodoo has a chance to place a Lao buff on the opponent on his hits which count towards the node. The more Laos on the opponent, the more likely you are to place them until it’s guaranteed. Then you gain a bunch of crazy attack and power gain. And the opponent just melts.
  • Soyheyor123Soyheyor123 Posts: 395 ★★

    Does voodoo need to be awakened to be able to cheese chapter 2?

    the ramp up will be slower because the sig allows him to have a 10% chance to place loas due to the increased aa. but he will eventually ramp up and place loas on every hit and ramp up even more
    Sorry for bothering, but wdym by ramp up with vodoo, how I suppose to play him? I use to throw sp2 with the even combo and that's it
    So in Chapter 2, Arcane Torrent gives you 25% increased ability accuracy and 10% increased attack per buff on the opponent and Voodoo has a chance to place a Lao buff on the opponent on his hits which count towards the node. The more Laos on the opponent, the more likely you are to place them until it’s guaranteed. Then you gain a bunch of crazy attack and power gain. And the opponent just melts.
    Wow!! I just finished chapter 1, that's amazing!
    Thanks a lot
  • altavistaaltavista Posts: 1,261 ★★★★
    Thanks for the write up. Managed to get through the easy lanes in Chapter 1. Bishop was an annoying one for me, as chip damage from hard to dex SP1 was pretty bad (kept trying to push to SP2 but Bishop AI wouldn’t work with me).

    For 1.1 - what was your strategy with Storm Pyramid X? I gave a try with Starky (only R3 5*), baited Sp1. The glancing kept neutering my damage and preventing heavy power drain.

    I also disagree with the global node assessment - unblockable and increased damage were helpful against IMIW and his evade friendly specials.

    i’ll definitely bookmark you guide as i go for completion and exploration.
  • Iron_SkywalkerIron_Skywalker Posts: 125
    for the Scarlet Witch, am i correct in noting Mephisto and Claire as the only poison immune?
  • Nichj99Nichj99 Posts: 248 ★★

    for the Scarlet Witch, am i correct in noting Mephisto and Claire as the only poison immune?

    Dormammu too
  • StevieManWonderStevieManWonder Posts: 5,017 ★★★★★
    HI_guys said:

    I disagree with your point on spider verse. For example in the Ironman IW fight in V5 1.1 we can Dodge his specials and then hit him to ignore armour and autoblock

    Fair enough, I used Venom for that fight so I just ignored his Autoblock anyways.
  • StevieManWonderStevieManWonder Posts: 5,017 ★★★★★
    Nichj99 said:

    I’m a little lost at how V4 was only a 5.5/10. I know a lot of people that think it was by far the best variant before this one?

    Literally only because of the one star hulk path. It’s so irritating that that they have 100% exploration locked behind either already having a one star Hulk or spending hundreds or thousands of units to either try to pull him from those bs crystals or to unit it through with Gamora or Vision.
  • StevieManWonderStevieManWonder Posts: 5,017 ★★★★★
    altavista said:

    Thanks for the write up. Managed to get through the easy lanes in Chapter 1. Bishop was an annoying one for me, as chip damage from hard to dex SP1 was pretty bad (kept trying to push to SP2 but Bishop AI wouldn’t work with me).

    For 1.1 - what was your strategy with Storm Pyramid X? I gave a try with Starky (only R3 5*), baited Sp1. The glancing kept neutering my damage and preventing heavy power drain.

    I also disagree with the global node assessment - unblockable and increased damage were helpful against IMIW and his evade friendly specials.

    i’ll definitely bookmark you guide as i go for completion and exploration.

    I used Starky for her and just baited the Sp1. You can definitely do it with a r3, but it’ll be a long fight so you need to be patient. You can also use any power control champ minimize the effect of the Energize node.
  • RockypantherxRockypantherx Posts: 3,897 ★★★★★
    Great write up! I agree on a lot of your points, although my overall enjoyment was much less for whatever reason.

    And well done for getting a review out before me. I’ve been slacking it seems. But seriously, congrats and I’m jealous of that BWDO.
  • solmyrairsolmyrair Posts: 388
    edited August 2020
    To complete I’ve used only VdD 5* R5. I’ve been collecting buffs depends of nodes I’m approaching with certain boss.

    Sorry - edit, Venom boss has been taken with SS.
  • BerjibsBerjibs Posts: 1,522 ★★★★
    Wasp fight is easy. Energise really helps you out.

    Just parry heavy until she has 1 bar then bait sp1 counter with 4 hit combo, bait sp1 4 hit combo and repeat. She can’t evade you for the 4 hits after her special as she’s on cooldown timer.

    Sometimes you only need a 3 hit combo to take her to one bar.

    I used venom and the bleeds wrecked her but anyone works.
  • BerjibsBerjibs Posts: 1,522 ★★★★

    for the Scarlet Witch, am i correct in noting Mephisto and Claire as the only poison immune?

    Dormammu
  • Vivek_786Vivek_786 Posts: 217
    I cleared variant 5 with easy paths.. don't have revives, potions but only have some boosts..
    I cleared it with 500 units doc voodo, spiderman stark enhanced, magik, ghost rider and miles morales are only option I had, (lol me for miles😝 but no better champs and miles is 6*duped) it was fairly challanging not too hard not too easy, if someone hoard some revive stuff , this varient can be explorable and doable easily without units!!
    But if you want rewards earlier just like me, give it a shot and complete it, it's worth
  • MauledMauled Posts: 3,957 Guardian
    edited August 2020
    I’ve enjoyed it so far - exploring ch3 currently. Completion cost me 2 revives, so far having 100% ch1+2 I’ve also dropped a team revive and 3 more revives.

    Only real pain points for me so far were Manthing, Ebony Maw and that Flux dispersal not consistently dispersing after a heavy.
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