Summoners!

The May update is almost here, and while Black Widow won’t be hitting theatres next month, two new champions inspired by the movie, Black Widow (Deadly Origin) and Red Guardian are set to join The Contest.

Here’s some info to get your prepped for what’s happening in-game next month. Expect to see the update available for download April 27 or 28. Read the Full Release Notes.

NEW CHAMPIONS

Black Widow finally gets an MCU variant! Black Widow (Deadly Origin) is a Skill Champion whose key features include evade, defensive ability accuracy reduction, shock debuffs, and increased critical damage rating. Her Sabotage Debuff deals bonus damage each time she causes a defensive ability to fail, making her sound a bit like Domino 2.0. Black Widow (Deadly Origin) has synergies Red Guardian, Black Widow, Taskmaster, Hawkeye, Ronin, Captain America, Iron Man, Falcon, Black Panther, Gamora, Psylocke, Electra, Hulk and Hulk Ragnarok.

The Russian Captain America, Red Guardian is a Science Champion specializing in placing multiple Debuffs on the opponent to enhance both his damage and utility. With his shield, Red Guardian can not only block unblockable attacks, he can actually stun an unblockable opponent! Another unique part of Red Guardian’s kit is that he can’t gain any buffs. Instead, any buff that would trigger on him is converted into a Durability stack for his Ablative Shield. Red Guardian also has access to the Slow Debuff to prevent Unstoppable and Evade, and has synergies with his Russian comrades Black Widow, Omega Red, Colossus, Rhino, and Abomination, as well as Sabretooth.

EVENT QUEST
In May’s event quest titled “Black Widow: Red By Dawn,” Black Widow and Red Guardian attempt to track down a lost mind control weapon of the Cabal. Of course, they aren’t the only ones after such a valuable piece of technology, as Taskmaster has been sent by a secret enemy to retrieve it. “Black Widow: Red By Dawn” starts Wednesday, April 29 at 1pm EST.

SIDE QUESTS
The setup for the side-quest is a bit complicated, but the good news is Rifts are back!

Each day, you will be assigned a Target as a Special Objective. There will be clues as to who the target is, but it won’t be explicitly stated and it’s up to you to figure it out. Once you uncover the identity of the target and take them down, you’ll earn a Keycard which grants access to a Red Room Quest.

After completing the Red Room Quest, you’ll be rewarded with the chance to access Red Rift Quests. One new feature is the Dimensional Chronometer, which will allow you to choose your own reward in a Rift once during the month. This is a welcome change due to the RNG nature of Rift Rewards, and could potentially be account-changing for some Summoners. Read the full Forum Post with Rewards Information.

BUG FIXES
Most of the bug fixes this month appear to be minor and involve PI issues. There is one for Killmonger which fixes his damage for the Act 6.3.1 Medusa on Bleed Vulnerability, which he was under-performing on. King Groot can now shrug off a Poison Debuff from Liquid Courage, and there are fixes to the Special 2 animations of Storm Pyramid X and Mole Man. The much talked about Morningstar health-steal fix for the Champion fight is not in this build, expect that to be in the June update.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a much lighter update than the past few months. Although we know Book 2 Act 1 is coming soon, as the Beta will start in May, it is a bit disappointing there is no Variant 5 next month. Whether that is all part of the Road-map or this month is lighter because of understandable work limitations during the Pandemic, it’s impossible to say. That being said, I’m excited for the prospect of an MCU Black Widow as I love the new costume, and if the content load is on the lighter side, I’ll just play more Incursions and Act 6.

-Dano357