Frontline: MCOC

Around The Battlerealm – March 11, 2020

Summoners!

Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Wednesday, March 11, 2020.

Schedule Notes: Love Juice converts to regular health potions at 1pm EST. Act 6.4 and Week 2 of the Mole Man Expeditions become available at 1pm EST. 100% roster availability following the conclusion of the AQ Series at 3pm EST.

RichTheMan reviews the newly revamped Sunday Arenas and asks “Are They Worth It?”

KT1 has a Rank-Up and Game-Play video for Longshot.

MCOC Doc has a champion guide for Warlock.

Lagacy has some early tips for the Act 6.4 Bosses.

Seatin shows off his Rank 5 Morningstar taking down the Act 6.2 Champion.

-Dano357

Around The Battlerealm – March 10, 2020

Summoners!

Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Tuesday, March 10, 2020.

Schedule Notes: Mr. Fantastic enters the Basic Pool at 1pm EST.

Kabam announced Season 7 of Alliance Quest, which will begin on March 22. There are some big additions to the Glory Store and Rank Rewards, as well as changes to the mini-bosses, more Modifiers, and the debut of Doom Bots.

Lagacy covers the update to Alliance Quest in his latest video.

The return of Namor and Cull Obsidian has been paused while an issue with the over-return of champions dupes, and an under-return of ISO is dealt with.

Craftygrinding has Round 1 results, and Round 2 predictions for Thing and Claire Voyant.

DarkZodiac shows you how to evade Aarkus’ SP2.

-Dano357

Frontline Interviews: StarFighter – Boss Rush (Claire Voyant)

Summoners!

Thanks to Starfighter from the Podcast of Champions for sharing her thoughts on participating in the International Women’s Day Boss Rush and designing the final fight, Claire Voyant.

How did you feel when you learned that Kabam was planning an International Women’s Day Boss Rush and wanted you to participate?

It’s kind of a rush and a shock all at once haha. I had a lot of fun doing it the first time, so it’s something that’s very hard to say no to the second time. I was honored to have been thought of for this type of thing again, and doing it in conjunction with IWD is something I felt like I had seen people ask for in the past.

Why did you choose Claire Voyant as your champion? Did you have thoughts of choosing anyone else or what is always going to be Claire?

Claire is one of those champions that I personally want in my roster – I don’t have her as a 5*. Picking her was partly also me seeing if I could entice her to slide into my crystal results, similar to Law of Attraction. Ever since she came out she’s been one that I’ve always been excited about seeing. Changing immunities is just really fun to mess around with, not to mention the other areas of her kit.

As a group we did decide that we should all decide to pick female champs, and I had ones I knew I wouldn’t pick and I wasn’t always set on Claire – I think I had a list of her and maybe 5 others that I was considering. I want to say those were Nebula, Spider Gwen, Elsa Bloodstone, She Hulk & Storm. I also had those in mind before we saw the list of curated nodes that we had to come up with something from, so some of that changed it. So as I started toying with the combination of nodes, I did start to think of combining Rage, Mighty Charge and Matador. Soon after that the more I messed around with the idea the more it became more and more tailored to Claire.

You were able to design a fight for last Boss Rush with your Podcast of Champions co-host Kam. How did that fight and the feedback you received influence this fight’s design?

Yeah, that fight was a lot of fun to design. Getting to do it with Kam was also a great thing for it, I think we hashed out the fight over an hour long call. – the idea we started to run with was the idea of a fight similar to the feel of Brian’s flare shield rocket of getting amped up damage, before dialing in on icarus and the fact that we both thought Taskmaster would be fun with empowered immunity. For then we wanted to have a fight that could be done by pretty much every champ that time also.

I think most of people’s feedback we heard was either that it was a really fun fight at the end of the quest or that it was too easy. We were both happy with how it turned out don’t get me wrong, but I think for me, I did end up wishing we had made it a little more challenging for people then it was.

So I did want to make this fight a lot more designed to manufacture a way of fighting it, without taking too much of the player’s choices away. The design grew from the first ideas I had to become what it is – I don’t think I set out to design it exactly this way other than me seeing both Mighty Charge & Matador in the list and laughing at combining them. I did want this fight to feel more substantial as a challenging but doable one. It’s kind of made to not have direct clear cut counters, like sometimes turnout, but naturally people want to counter safeguard and not have to take all 100 hits – so I did leave room for the passive damage dealers and some of the other avenues there.

You designed a fight that’s a bit longer than the others in the Boss Rush and one where damage over time champs excel. Is that the kind of fight you enjoy the most in MCOC?

I haven’t always been a fan of them, like I enjoy watching champ’s health bars melt as much as everyone else. I do like fights where it gets easier when you have a direct counter, but maintains a baseline for everyone that’s about the same level of effort being put in at a certain rank/level of champ. That and that kind of makes it easier to replayable the fight, where it’s not one sole answer to it but many. That’s what makes some fights more fun, especially when you know you are going to want to play the quest numerous times.

The way it turned out is one of the ways I do enjoy fights – being able to push opponents to higher power bars & then bait out the specials have always been enjoyable to me – and it’s a good way to learn how to play around Mighty Charge if you care to take the time for it. And I’ve always had fun with seeing how much power you can give an opponent in a single hit or parry – more on that in a bit here I think.

Besides your Claire Voyant, which fight in the Boss Rush did you enjoy the most?

That’s hard – I’m partial to most of them. I think I have to go with Dragon’s just due to the fact that it’s a call back to the Captain Marvel clash event and the way it’s designed does leave room to fight it in a traditional way, or to fight it by using invade to your own strength. Cat’s is probably the runner up, not that I’m biased from her being my alliance leader at this time… The way it turned out works really well for being able to play around medusa’s autoblock.

Who did you use to beat your boss, and what other champions would you recommend?

I almost exclusively used Captain America Infinity Way for her. There’s something that’s really satisfying when you bring him in with his signature ability classes on the team, making you able to parry Claire on a Mighty Charge and see her power shoot up to a full bar. Him and just rinsing parry, bait, punish was most of how I played the fight. I did also enjoy going in with a Nebula with Prox on the team and just trying to time a parry to see if I could see a single parry take her from 0 to 100 in .25 seconds. I didn’t end up getting that in full, but I definitely had one of 2 bars of power that I cackled at a fair amount.

The more efficient counters I’ve seen have been Omega Red and trapping her to a corner, Human Torch with his passive flames, Quake, Longshot. All have passive damage that get around safeguard and don’t get thrown off when she Mighty Charges. If you do want to play with the immunities more – bringing in champs like Cap who can apply debuffs on block can lead to some fun with power. I don’t think that you can really go wrong in choosing.

-Dano375

Frontline Interviews: Katy Candy – Boss Rush (Emma Frost)

Summoners!

Big thanks to Katy Candy for taking a few minutes to answer questions about her contribution to the International Women’s Day Boss Rush: Emma Frost.

How did you feel when you learned that Kabam was planning an International Women’s Day Boss Rush and wanted you to participate?

When I got asked to participate, I was shocked because I wasn’t in the CCP at that point in time. So needless to say, I was taken by surprise, but I was super excited.

Everyone who follows your channel or saw you at Comic Con knows you are a huge Emma fan. Did you consider any other picks or was it always going to be Emma?

No, it was ALWAYS going to be Emma. I believe I said, “I call Emma!” when we were discussing potential champs. So when the picture was released, I was trying to throw people off the scent by saying “isn’t it a little obvious for me to pick Emma?” Clearly that didn’t work lol.

Emma is a tough defender on her own, and then you gave her Unblockable Sp1 and Regeneration. What was your thought process for picking the nodes for the fight?

The reason I gave Emma the nodes that I did was I wanted to take her back to how she was when she was first introduced to the Contest. I remembered how difficult she was, and I wanted to bring her back to that. Now that being said, we didn’t have the counters to her (and those nodes) that we do now. So I picked the nodes and then I picked what champs I thought would work best against her (armor breakers, reverse healers, heal blockers, etc). And I thought ok, there are a lot of counters, this will be difficult, but not too difficult for people to complete.

Did you give any thought to “Corvus Proofing” the fight by making her Armor Break immune, or would have have increased the difficulty too much?

Do you want more people to hate me? lol. I thought about that, but then I thought that would just limit the number of counters to her, and I didn’t want to make her fight a CHAMPION specific fight. I wanted there to be more than just one or two counters for her. I feel like adding an Immunity: Armor Break to her would make her too much of a road block for people, and I didn’t want to do that.

How does it feel to be thanked in-game, and have your own title?

It is both amazing and crazy to me at the same time. To be asked participate in this was amazing and I can’t thank Kabam enough for it. It’s all very surreal still; maybe because it’s my first time? But I had a blast doing this and working with all the other lovely ladies!

Who did you use to beat your boss, and what other champions would you recommend?

So, first I went in with Warlock, and I feel like he is the best option for it since he has the passive heal block and can armor break. Then I went in with my r2 Void, and I’m not going to lie, that was a sloppy fight, but getting the heal reversal is key, especially when she’s in her defensive state. So I decided to go back in with a 3/45 Void, and fought better, surprisingly. Corvus is another solid option, since you can get two charges for him (X23 and Wasp). And if all else fails, CapIW cheese with 3 points in despair, a cosmic, tech, and science champ on the team.

-Dano357

Around The Battlerealm – March 9, 2020

Summoners!

Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Monday, March 9, 2020.

Schedule Notes: Round 2 of the 4* Claire Voyant and Thing Featured Arenas at 1pm EST. Summoner Sigil Owners, your Solo Event, Gold Quest, and items on a 7-day timer and the Legendary Crystal in the Black-ISO Market reset at 1pm EST. UMCOC Podcast, Live on Discord at 8pm EST. If you sold your Cull Obsidian and/or Namor, this is expected return date for those champions.

The International Women’s Day Boss is now live. Check out guides from Seatin, KT1, and Katy Candy.

For more on the Boss Rush, check out my written guide, and also an interview with Dragonfei, who designed the Rogue fight.

Episode 7 of the Contest Realm Podcast is now live! Karatemike joins us to talk Mole Man, Act 6.4 rewards, and his journey as an up-and-coming actor.

-Dano357

Frontline Interviews: Dragonfei – Boss Rush (Rogue)

Summoners!

Frontline Interviews is back! I’d like to thank Dragonfei from the UMCOC Podcast (Live on Discord, 8pm EST every Monday) for taking time out of her day to share her thoughts on designing the Rogue fight for the International Women’s Day Boss Rush.

How did you feel when you learned that Kabam was planning an International Women’s Day Boss Rush and wanted you to participate?

Super excited! We haven’t had a Boss Rush in a while, so hearing that they were planning to do one for International Women’s Day, plus bringing in community members to design it? It’s the ultimate compliment to be asked to participate!

Did you ask the game design team to add Jubilee to the game just so you could debut her in the Boss Rush?

No, but the only reason I didn’t was because I think if I keep asking, Gabe (Gabriel Frizzera, the Creative Director at Kabam) is going to refuse to add her to the game just to spite me, and I might deserve it….

As soon as the promo art was released, I knew Rogue had to be your pick. Was there ever any doubt about picking Rogue, as she’s not traditionally seen as a tough defender?

Anyone who has ever listened to the Podcast knows that Rogue is my favorite character currently available in the game – so no, there really wasn’t any doubt. I also wanted to take, as you pointed out, someone who isn’t always seen as a tough defender and make a fight that people were going to both remember, and have a difficult time with!

You helped design the Domino fight your UMCOC Podcast co-hosts. How did that experience influence your design for the Rogue fight?

That Domino fight is probably the most talked about one from the last Boss Rush – because of its difficulty and the fact that it countered some of the more common champions that people like to use for these challenges! That inspired me to shoot for the same thing – I wanted to make the fight that would give people trouble and they’d have to put in some effort to get through! But I also didn’t want to make the same fight – so I took a few of the lessons from Domino and a few from an older Boss Rush to come up with the node design for Rogue!

I think your fight had the fasted pace of any of the 6 fights, because of the two different timers involved (unstoppable and regeneration). Was that intentional?

That was 100% intentional. The harder and faster you go after this fight – the easier it is. Keeping in mind that it’s designed for folks with 5/50’s more so than 5/65’s – you have 10 seconds at the beginning of the fight to really just damage the heck out of her. If you fight more defensively, or have a more defensive style, this fight is going to be harder for you! I tend to fight very defensively myself so it was a shift from my usual way to think about a fight!

You purposely added Invade but then countered in with nodes, why was that important to your fight’s design?

Invade is the secret to beating this fight quickly and effectively. In the last Boss Rush, Dave set up his fight to have Spite help you if you used it correctly, and I wanted to do the same here – I wanted a node to be the way to beat the fight. Invade also massively broadens the pool of champs that can beat her, because you’re (if you’re quick enough) using that 300% attack increase to your advantage.

The combination of Brawl and Aggression: Regen is a fun one – and I added Death Touch because Rogue does have very easy to dodge specials. They’re both nodes that can be countered, but not as easily as folks might think and it’s very easy to get lost in timer counting if you aren’t aggressive enough, which is exactly what I wanted!

Who did you use to beat your boss, and what other champions would you recommend?

I’ve done a couple of runs so far and my two favorites are, admittedly, Warlock and Corvus. Warlock is probably the best of the bunch, because while you can’t parry and put on 5 infection charges easily – you can shut down her regen. Which means all you have to worry about is Brawl! I’m planning to do a run with Ghost, Void, Sunspot and a few others! She can, technically, be beat by anyone though!

-Dano0357

Contest Realm Podcast – Episode 7 – Special Guest KarateMike – Mole Man, Act 6 Rewards & More!

Summoners!

Episode 7 is here! The tremendously talented KarateMike joins the Podcast to talk Mole Man, the Act 6 rewards buff, being Mr. 152 in the Mojo arena, and running AQ lanes before auditions.

Listen on SoundCloud
Listen on Spotify
Listen on iTunes

-Dano357

International Women’s Day Boss Rush Guide

Summoners!

Here’s my guide for the International Women’s Day Boss Rush.

General Thoughts:
First off, congrats to the Women of the Battlerealm for designing a fun Boss Rush that feels like the most accessible challenge of its type so far, because it does not require hard counters.

One issue I see a lot with Boss Rush challenges is that people say they don’t have the necessary champion to get by a certain boss. It’s very rare that only one champion in the game is the only answer for a fight. Certainly there is usually a best option, but don’t let perfect be the enemy of good, or in this case, not having the best option get in the way of completing the content. Also, remember this challenge is around for two weeks, so take your time and practice before going for a full run if these fights are at the top-end of your current roster and skill level.

Getting thru a Boss Rush requires two skills. One is understanding the opponents well enough to be able to hang with them in a high health-pool fight. The second is reading and understanding how the specific nodes will influence the fight, and what you can do to counter them. I’ll break down the individual fights below, who I brought for the challenge, why I brought those champions, and other champion alternatives to consider.

More great art from Cat Murdock, who also designed the Medusa fight!

Champ Restrictions: None

Global Node: +100% Attack and Health Champion Boost, +100% Health

My Team: Sentinel, Corvus Glaive, Sunspot, Hyperion, Blade

Boss 1 – X-23
Creator: lola2pawz (Laura Grant)
Nodes: Matador, Spite, Godslayer, Indomitable
Champion Used: Corvus Glaive
Tips: This is the easiest of the 6 fights, but not necessarily the quickest. One key thing to remember is this is the only fight that the Special 3 Attack is not active, so you don’t have to worry about it. I used Corvus so I would have charge later on, but you can use any heavy hitter. Use Spite to your advantage by constantly feeding X-23 power so she’ll throw specials that you can counter instead of taking block damage.

Watch Brian Grant’s Video on Laura’s Fight.

Boss 2 – Medusa
Creator: Cat Murdock
Nodes: SP3 Active, Counterstrike, Pilfer, Invade, Cornered
Champion Used: Corvus Glaive
Tips: The Invade node is your friend here, so stay aggressive and end the fight quickly by hitting into Medusa’s block. Corvus is excellent for this fight because of the crit damage he does, especially if you gained a charge in the X-23 fight. Again, there isn’t a specific counter required here, it’s more about the play-style and keeping Medusa on the defensive.

Boss 3 – Wasp
Creator: Ms. Insomnia
Nodes: SP3 Active, Spiked Armor, Dismay, Enhanced Shock, Plagued Mind
Champion Used: Blade/Hyperion
Tips: I’ll admit it, I got a little sloppy here and Wasp ended my Blade’s day early on the first run. This is basically like any other high health-pool Wasp fight, but the Dismay and Enhanced Shock will punish you even more than usual if you mess up. Make sure you only attack into Wasp when she is stunned or her evade timer is on cool down. The Spiked Armor does add another element of difficulty, as you’ll take damage back on critical hits (this is meant to counter Corvus and Ghost).

I would recommend someone that can take a lot of blocked hits and/or heal, counters Wasp’s evade, or can get around the Spiked Armor node. There are a number of champions that could do this fight, but to name a few I would recommend Namor, Crossbones, Emma Frost, Nick Fury, Omega Red, Captain Marvel Movie, and Quake.

Boss 4 – Emma Frost
Creator: Katy Candy
Nodes: SP3 Active, Kinetic Transference, Oscillate, Enhanced SP1, Aggressive Regeneration
Champion Used: Corvus Glaive
Tips: So you have to be able to handle the Reserve Controls on Emma’s SP1 or this fight will be rough for you. If you have Corvus Glaive, I recommend using him here because the armor break utility is clutch and it shortens the fight. If you don’t have Corvus, look for other champions that can stack Armor Breaks like Sentinel, Captain Marvel Movie, Hyperion, Medusa, or Thor.

Boss 5 – Rogue
Creator: Dragonfei (UMCOC Podcast)
Nodes: SP3 Active, Aggressive Regeneration, Invade, Brawl, Aspect of Death
Champion Used: Corvus Glaive
Tips: This is the highest pace fight of the Boss Rush, because you’re dealing with two competing timers: Aggressive Regeneration and the unstoppable from Brawl. This means you need to play hyper-aggressive, but then back off at the right time. You do want to take advantage of the Invade node by hitting into block for the high chip damage, but the Aggressive Regeneration node is in the fight for a reason, and that’s to keep you from solely relying on this strategy. Get your hits in punishing Rogue’s special attacks to keep the Regeneration count low, and make sure you are watching the Brawl timer.

Boss 6 – Claire Voyant
Creator: Starfighter0717 (Podcast of Champions)
Nodes: SP3 Active, Mighty Charge, Safeguard, Empowered Immunity, Matador, Curse of Death
Champion Used: Sentinel/Sunspot
Tips: I think they saved the best for last. Claire Voyant is an interesting fight normally, and Starr put together a clever challenge that makes the Summoner think. My goal for this fight was initially to use Sentinel, get to 100 Analysis Charges and then fire off a SP2 to end the fight. Unfortunately, I missed my timing on a SP1 evade, but otherwise the strategy was sound. I wound up closing out the fight by stacking a bunch of Incinerate Debuffs with Sunspot to overcome the Safeguard Node.

Make sure you have a counter and a plan for this fight, as I do think this is one of the harder fights. Bleed-immunity certainly helps. Thing and Luke Cage give you class advantage and bleed-immunity. You could also use Human Torch with his pre-fight ability active or Quake. That being said, Class Advantage isn’t required.

Read Starfighter’s Thoughts on her Boss Rush Fight.

Recommended Videos:
Katy Candy – Boss Rush Walkthru

-Dano357

Around The Battlerealm – March 8, 2020

Summoners!

Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Sunday, March 8, 2020.

Schedule Notes: The International Women’s Day Boss Rush begins at 1pm EST. The Tier 4 Basic Arena begins at 6pm EST.

Kabam released new 5-Year Retrospective for Marvel Contest of Champions.

RichTheMan shows you how to cheese the Act 6.2.3 Icarus node.

KT1 gives his initial review of Mole Man.

DarkZodiac shows you how to evade Terrax’s special attacks.

Hector has a Level-Up and Game-Play video 6* Joe Fixit.

-Dano357

The Week Ahead in MCOC – March 8-14, 2020

Summoners!

We have an incredibly busy week full of new content headed our way. On Sunday, March 8, the women of The Battlerealm have designed a special Boss Rush challenge to celebrate International Women’s Day. Later in the week, Elder’s Saga concludes with the release of Act 6.4 on Wednesday, March 11 at 1pm EST.

Alliance War Season 16
We are currently in Alliance War Season 16. Rewards lock on Friday, March 13 at 6pm EST, and the season will end on Tuesday, March 24.

For daily updates and the latest news, please follow @FrontlineMCOC on Twitter or join the Frontline: MCOC LINE Group.

Full Roster Availability (No AW/AQ): 100% champion availability following the conclusion of the Alliance Quest series on Wednesday, March 11 at 3pm EST through Thursday, March 12 at 2pm EST. There is a second window starting at 2pm EST on Friday, March 13 through Saturday, March 14 at 2pm EST.

Sunday, March 8: The International Women’s Day Boss Rush begins at 1pm EST. The Tier 4 Basic Arena begins at 6pm EST.

Monday, March 9: Round 2 of the 4* Claire Voyant and Thing Featured Arenas at 1pm EST. Summoner Sigil Owners, your Solo Event, Gold Quest, and items on a 7-day timer and the Legendary Crystal in the Black-ISO Market reset at 1pm EST. UMCOC Podcast, Live on Discord at 8pm EST. If you sold your Cull Obsidian and/or Namor, this is expected return date for those champions.

Tuesday, March 10: Mr. Fantastic enters the Basic Pool at 1pm EST.

Wednesday, March 11: Love Juice converts to regular health potions at 1pm EST. Act 6.4 and Week 2 of the Mole Man Expeditions become available at 1pm EST. 100% roster availability following the conclusion of the AQ Series at 3pm EST.

Thursday, March 12: Round 1 of the TBA 4* and Mole Man Featured Arenas begin at 1pm EST. 100% roster availability until Alliance War attack resumes around 2pm EST.

Friday, March 13: 100% roster availability following the conclusion of AW attack at 2pm EST. The Rewards Lockout for Season 16 is at 6pm EST. You must be in an alliance before matchmaking, and play 5 wars with that alliance to be eligible for Season Rewards.

Saturday, March 14: 100% roster availability until AW attack resumes at 2pm EST. The AQ Series begins at 3pm EST. The Alpha Arena begins at 6pm EST.

Looking for more content from Frontline: MCOC?

100% Roster Availability for March

Contest Realm Podcast Episode 6 with RichTheMan – Act 6 Reward Issues and v26.0 Preview Show

Champion Guide – Mephisto

-Dano357