Variant Difficulty - My Thoughts
kconrad37
Member Posts: 160 ★★
So I just recently finished the Variant Difficulty and I wanted to share some of the thoughts I had while playing through it.
Lastly, I wanted to address some of the things I found...slightly hypocritical from the Dev Diary post about the added difficulty. A direct quote from the post:
Now while we know there weren't any champions with +1000% Attack, but I still feel like parts of this difficulty could cause a player to "walk into a fight and immediately lose their entire roster." I had some instances of the Science Ultron Drones evading an attack an immediately punishing me for it, often to the point of an instant K.O. because of their overall strength. Those evades reminded me of a time we were plagued with this same bug when facing Classic Spider-Man and Ultron in some of the very first iterations of Alliance War, and definitely did not make the game fun and enjoyable. Some of the most frustrating moments while playing through this difficulty came from champions evading attacks and immediately punishing me into the ground.
Side Note: Why is it that I can face someone like Classic Daredevil and hit him with a mixed Special attack (part physical, part projectile in that order) and have every single hit land (i.e. Blade's Special 2), but when I face an opponent like Spider-Man or Miles Morales and hit them with the same Special 2 (Or a Special 2 from Stark-Enhanced Spider-Man) they have the capability to evade the projectile portion of the attack? I noticed this a few times as well.
Anyways, I really enjoyed playing through this new content, I thought it was a good challenge and a good way to test my skills as a player, but overall there are some things that I think fell short of making this a truly great experience. I know I'm just one guy but hopefully this reaches the right people.
- This level of difficulty definitely requires a deep roster and an analytical mind. It forces you to fully weigh out your options and choose champions based on the paths you're taking, which can force you to play with champions you haven't used before/in a long time. This was a great way to dust off some champions and to highlight some of the abilities that others have.
- The class separation was a nice touch on adding difficulty because in a lot of ways it prevented some of the most common synergies from coming into play - I.E. Danger Sense on Villains and a stronger Danger Sense overall with the Blade/Ghost Rider/Stark-Enhanced Spider-Man synergies, the synergies between Void, Killmonger and Sabretooth, or the synergies between Ant-Man, Wasp, and Ghost, as well as some others that are probably fairly common. Again this forced you into really thinking about your roster and looking at what certain champions can do in order to run these maps as efficiently as possible.
- While the class separation was a fun challenge, I do not think that it was overall fair to keep ramping up the difficulty and strength of Chapters 2 and 3. I feel like this can really strain a lot of players who maybe don't have the right champions as 5* variants in Chapter 3 where you're facing enemies at 40k+ PI and much higher health and attack than in Chapter 1.
- For example: The first Vision you come across in Chapter 3.3 on the right side has a PI of 40,070, 169,945 Health and 12,465 Attack. The first fight in Chapter 1.3 is a Carnage with a PI of 31,069, 107,190 Health and 7,740 Attack.This may not seem like an extreme difference but that additional attack rating means you're taking more block damage, and if you happen to have a stacked roster of Skill/Mutant champions but are lacking in Science/Cosmic champions, you're going to have a bad time simply because of those differences.
- The Gassed node in Chapter 2.3 is, in my opinion, completely ridiculous and overpowered. Last I checked, Fatigue debuffs are entirely unavoidable and there are very few champions who can remove debuffs on themselves (Agent Venom, Ægon, Killmonger with the Void synergy, and Ghost come to mind, have I missed any?) and even in the case of having a single champion that qualifies for 2.3, Fatigue buffs that are applied mid-combo (or special, if I remember correctly) will inflict massive damage on the attacker should another hit land on the defender.
- While we're talking about nodes that feel a little unfair, I feel as though the final Ultron boss in Chapter 3.3 falls under that category. With no single Science or Cosmic champion falling into the "Shock Immune" category, only one champion really fits the unique parameters of this fight: Gladiator Hulk (or as you guys label him, Hulk (Ragnarok)), and this is simply because his Face Me! mechanic works against the passive shocks applied when this Ultron throws his specials after you trigger buffs.
- To elaborate just a little more on the 3.3 Ultron thing, I tried fighting him without triggering dexterity or any other buffs, and I found that the block damage from specials and attacks (especially when you run out of parries due to Limber) is too great and quickly results in a K.O.
Lastly, I wanted to address some of the things I found...slightly hypocritical from the Dev Diary post about the added difficulty. A direct quote from the post:
MCOC Team wrote:An opponent with +1000% Attack is a lot scarier and harder than one with +50% Attack, but isn’t more interesting. It’s not fun to walk into a fight and immediately lose your entire roster to a challenge with no counters.
Now while we know there weren't any champions with +1000% Attack, but I still feel like parts of this difficulty could cause a player to "walk into a fight and immediately lose their entire roster." I had some instances of the Science Ultron Drones evading an attack an immediately punishing me for it, often to the point of an instant K.O. because of their overall strength. Those evades reminded me of a time we were plagued with this same bug when facing Classic Spider-Man and Ultron in some of the very first iterations of Alliance War, and definitely did not make the game fun and enjoyable. Some of the most frustrating moments while playing through this difficulty came from champions evading attacks and immediately punishing me into the ground.
Side Note: Why is it that I can face someone like Classic Daredevil and hit him with a mixed Special attack (part physical, part projectile in that order) and have every single hit land (i.e. Blade's Special 2), but when I face an opponent like Spider-Man or Miles Morales and hit them with the same Special 2 (Or a Special 2 from Stark-Enhanced Spider-Man) they have the capability to evade the projectile portion of the attack? I noticed this a few times as well.
Anyways, I really enjoyed playing through this new content, I thought it was a good challenge and a good way to test my skills as a player, but overall there are some things that I think fell short of making this a truly great experience. I know I'm just one guy but hopefully this reaches the right people.
15
Comments
Ultron 3.3 shock is passive, so no, Corvus not immune. Just finished first run. That boss was hard as I did mistake, my Corvus was not dupped, so he died very quickly from shock
I feel like some of the nodes are actually pretty well placed some were very challenging and really tested my skills as a player.
I am not 100% done yet but have 100% chapter 1 and 2 and made 1 run of chapter 3.
The evading ultron boss was stupid. That did not test any skill at all. It tested how well you were able to parry and how good your heavy stack was.
Some of the paths are complete money grabs. Any path that features degen, starburst, korg or electro is trash. Especially when there are only a few counters to each champ. The guys who say they one shot them are liars.
Electro and korg on flare? Trash. Lol.
I’m slowly working on it, the rewards are worth it, the effort helps my skills increase and to think about synergies I’ve never used before. But kabam really needs to think about where they place korgs and electros.
I do 100% agree the final ultron is a little trash too, I don’t complain about it because I have a 6 star gladiator hulk and 5 star. If you don’t have that or Medusa you’re kind of screwed lol.
Gotcha. Was just mentioning it since he said there were no "shock immune" cosmic or Sci champs
And even Medusa isn't the best counter to 3.3 Ultron because she still gains buffs and that Force Of Will buff on Ultron prevents the ability accuracy modifications that would shut it all down.
@Kenny292 Thanks for the tips on using a version of Captain America. I'm sure anyone with a 6* WWII will be happy to know his block proficiency can help prolong the fight.
And lastly @OneManArmy I didn't even think of Nebula, good catch! I stuck with using Stark-Enhanced Spider-Man since his heavy is only one hit (because I learned the hard way a two-hit heavy can get you) and I knew the method worked.
I’m curious whether anyone has completed chapter 3 100% without Hulk Ragnarok. Anyone have any ideas for other possible counters? If it turns out that Gulk is the only counter to the Starburst paths, this is bad game design IMO. As it is, since I don’t have a 4*, I’ll be waiting to finish until the RNG shows me its favor.
I feel like this isn’t the correct explanation. There are two ways I feel this is incorrect.
1. If you’re immune to something, you’re immune regardless the circumstance. It doesn’t matter if it’s active or passive. I.e. Colossus doesn’t bleed because of a passive bleed.
2. There are a few champs with situational immunities, like IMIW, Emma, and of course Corvus. Even if you were to argue maybe because he’s only situationally immune and not inherently immune he could get shocked. This doesn’t make sense either unless the criteria was not met (no glaive charges for Corvus or no armor for IMIW). IMIW can still do bleed paths and not bleed.
This seems like it’s more likely a bug or if you did get shocked it’s because Corvus’ immunity is disabled. Either way I think it’s something that should be addressed by the mods because Corvus should indeed be immune to shock, even if it’s passive, provided he is awakened and his immunity is active.
This is correct. OG Cap is an all star here. Maybe you get lucky and get a science 2015 3-4 gem on your way to the end.
Would have also liked to see some of the Magik's tuned down a bit. Chapter 3.1 has a Magik that deals around 1k Limbo damage per tick. Even with Face Me, my 3/45 Gulk can't survive many Limbo triggers, so it's really up to RNG. I feel like I'm being forced to rank him up just for this even though I probably wouldn't use him for much elsewhere.
I am 100% without him. Did most of chapter 3 with r4 Red hulk (with 10 charges he kills everything fast) using hela Angela and hemidall synergy to keep costs lower. 3.3 boss average about 6-8 revives, not hard just do your damage and accept death, revive and repeat.
Also 2.3 boss is a cake walk with Nebula, just get 5 charges and then fight as stun immune. My r3 took around 240-260 hit combo to beat him
Now this is simply not reality. Almost every fight in variant is 1 mistake = loss. There are plenty of fights where no mistakes = loss.
Let's take a fight like CG in 3.1 on oscillate path. Because of masochism global node you can't reliably parry him to reduce your block damage. A single dash attack while he has fury does more than 15k damage through your block.
This is completely absurd.
That kind of fight does not employ new or interesting mechanics that encourage skilled play. Yes I realize if you fight perfectly with all intercepts blah blah blah. My point is that when did blocking a single attack become a fatal mistake? How is this any different than simply giving them a +1000% attack node?
If you have CAIW and OG Hulk, they have a synergy where Science champs place a passive Weakness on the opponent that will lower the Limbo Damage by half. CAIW can also use an L1 with Kinetic Charges to push her past power thresholds without triggering Limbo or Masochism.
I wish I had Gulk for Variant, but did my Exploration without him, and without Heimdall. Used the Angela synergy, but it is a pale shadow of what Heimdall does. Most of the Starburst fights were solos, although that champ was severely hurting by the end.
There's no minimum required rating to enter. The "minimum requirements" are class requirements. For the first chapter, you can only use skill and mutant champs. Mystic and tech for chapter 2. Science and cosmic champs for chapter 3. The champs available on the right side of the screen are filtered for the classes of that chapter, but if you try to go in without changing your team from a previous quest, it won't let you if you have anyone from the other 4 classes on your team.
You’re right, Nebula is an mvp for chapter 2. For the 2.3 boss, I found Stark Spidey worked well. Parry, heavy. Then use the fatigue debuff to heal (with willpower) and build poise.