Actually Good? – Island of Doctor M.O.D.O.K.

Summoners!

Traditionally the “Laboratory Side Quests” haven’t been very popular with the player base. While much of the focus on this month’s Side Quest has been on the Gift Shop rewards, Kabam actually made quite a few improvements to this iteration of M.O.D.O.K.’s Laboratory that they aren’t getting credit for. Let’s break down what they did right this time.


No Daily Reset

Instead of 1 entry every 24 hours, this time players have 30 Sample Collectors used as entry keys. While this doesn’t seem like a big change, it actually is a huge reduction in grind stress. If you don’t feel like playing the event on a given day, you can just let your Sample Collectors accumulate and catch up later. This also significantly reduces the difficulty of the event, because you can skip the days when your best champions are locked in Alliance Quest and Alliance War, and then run several times when you have your whole roster available.


Class Specific Lanes

The other significant improvement that has greatly reduced the difficulty level is that there are now 6 paths that are all class specific. Planning for the nodes is trouble enough, but bringing a team that can handle the likes of Korg, Mr. Sinister, Nova, Dormammu, Nick Fury, and Annihilus all in a row is just too much.

This time around, Summoners can take the path with the class they can counter the best with their top 1-2 champs, and fill out the rest of the team with Boss counters. There are quite a few champions such as Corvus (Tech), Human Torch and Blade (Mystic), and Warlock and Sentinel (Mutant) that can counter pretty much anything on a single class lane. Furthermore, basically all the top Mystics – Claire Voyant, Doctor Doom, Longshot, Magik, Mephisto, Mojo, Sorcerer Supreme, and Symbiote Supreme – will take down anything on the Cosmic path.


Buff Deleter

While I don’t like that Buff Deleter costs Gold Coins, thus hurting your ability to maximize the Gift Shop, it’s a powerful new improvement. It’s particularly important given that the limited pool of nodes on the Boss reduces the usefulness of Randomizers. Perhaps next time a limited number of Buff Deletors can be earned through completing other parts of the Side Quest (for example the Solo Objectives) so that players don’t have to spend the special currency of the month on them.


Additional Components To The Quest

The ability to earn Gold Coins through Solo Objectives (easily achievable through Auto-Fighting) and Targets allows players who only want a few items in the store and don’t enjoy the Lab Quest to still get some extra rewards.


What do you think about the Island of Doctor M.O.D.O.K.? What improvements would you like to see the next time M.O.D.O.K.’s Lab reappears in The Contest?

-Dano357