March looks to be an absolutely massive month for content in Marvel Contest of Champions. Check out the Release Notes for v26.0, which contains information on the new Event Quest, Terrax and Mole Man, Mole Man Expeditions, the International Women’s Day Boss Rush, new Solo Objectives, and the latest round of bug fixes. Expect to see v26.0 available for download on or around March 2.
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.
Full Roster Availability (No AW/AQ): 100% champion availability following the conclusion of the Alliance Quest series on Tuesday, March 3 at 3pm EST through Thursday, March 5 at 2pm EST.
Sunday, March 1: No schedule updates.
Monday, March 2: Round 2 of the 4* M.O.D.O.K. and Mojo Featured Arenas at 1pm EST. Summoner Sigil Owners, your Solo Event, Gold Quest, and items on a 7-day timer and the Featured 5* Crystal in the Black-ISO Market reset at 1pm EST. UMCOC Podcast, Live on Discord at 8pm EST.
Tuesday, March 3: 100% roster availability following the conclusion of the AQ Series at 3pm EST.
Wednesday, March 4: 100% roster availability all day! The window to trade Shattered Heart Shards for Love Juice ends at 1pm EST. The new Event Quest “Of Rocks and Rodents” and Week 1 of the Mole Man Expeditions open at 1pm EST.
Thursday, March 5: Round 1 of the 4* Claire Voyant and TBA Featured Arenas begin at 1pm EST. 100% roster availability until Alliance War attack resumes around 2pm EST. The Alpha Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Here’s my guide for Back Issues (Variant 3) Chapter 2.1.
General Thoughts: I enjoyed Chapter 2.1. It has a good mix of challenges and an engaging boss fight which doesn’t feel cheap, despite the use of unblockable. I think this is one of the easier Variant 3 Chapters to 100%.
MVP Champs: Sentinel, Warlock, Ghost, Stark Spider-Man
Global Node: +400 %Attack and Health Boost Apex Manufacture: Sentinel gains Analysis Charges at 2x normal rate, and attacks deal 1% additional damage per charge. Composite Construction: All Tech Champions are Immune to Ability Accuracy Modification Stack Overflow: Additional Tech Champions on the Attacker’s Team increase the duration of Debuffs by 10% Overclocked: All Champion Classes other than Tech suffer a -50% Base Attack Penalty.
Boss: Wolverine
Nodes: +300% Health Berserker Barrage: Whenever the Attacker is not under the effect of a Regeneration buff, the Defender gains a Passive Fury every second, increasing the Defender’s attack by +50%. Passive Fury stacks are removed if the Defender gains a regeneration buff. Vigorous Assault: While the Defender has a Regeneration buff active, they gain +65% attack and all attacks are unblockable. +100% Healing & Recovery Enhanced Abilities Agressive Mighty Charge
Boss Fight Notes: This is one of those fights that is best to play without blocking any of the opponent’s hits. I used Sentinel, but I think any heavy-hitter will work. Note that simply heal-blocking the regeneration node doesn’t prevent the unblockable, you need to nullify it to remove the unblockable. Your best tactic is likely to hit into Wolverine’s block until you can bait and punish his SP1. I found this a pretty enjoyable fight.
Lane 1 – Far Left Defenders: Hulk Ragnarok, Sentinel, Netflix Daredevil, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Thor, She-Hulk Nodes: Fisticuffs, Aggressive (Main Path) Tips: When playing as Sentinel, hit into the opponent’s block to gain Analysis while waiting for the Fisticuffs node to expire. If you can, use Stark Spider-Man against Sentinel to get the robot 2x damage bonus on his SP2. None of the defenders on this lane should provide much of a challenge.
Lane 2 – Center Left Defenders: Venom, Goldpool, Namor, Blade, X-23 Nodes: Enhanced Bleed, Debilitate (Main Path, +100% Health, Vigorous Assault, Enhanced Abilities, Aggressive (X-23) Tips: Another great lane for Sentinel that is very straightforward, just don’t get hit if your champion isn’t bleed-immune, cause you’ll be dead. The X-23 fight is similar to the Wolverine Boss fight, so use the same tactics.
Lane 3 – Center Right Defenders: Venompool, Venom The Duck, Moon Knight, Green Goblin, Deadpool Nodes: Chaos, +200% Power Gain (Main Path), +100% Health, +150% Healing & Recovery, Disarray, Matador (Deadpool) Tips: You’ve got that fun combination of Chaos and Power Gain, so you need to bait a ton of specials, but you don’t know what’s going to happen afterwards. Your best solution is to load up on the power control champions like Warlock, Vision, and Stark Spider-Man, or just Ghost everything.
Lane 4 – Far Right Defenders: Phoenix, Doctor Voodoo, Abomination, Crossbones, Hulk, Sabretooth Nodes: Enhanced Fury, Aggression: Fury (Main Path), +100% Health, Untamed Force, Limited Immunity (Sabretooth). Tips: This lane isn’t too bad. Make sure you have a poison-immune for Abomination. The Sabretooth at the end of the path is an interesting fight. Untamed Force gives him a 20% chance to go unblockable on his first medium hit. Because of this, you do not want to parry his medium dash attack. If you are going to parry, make sure you are close to Sabretooth so he throws a light attack. Otherwise, you’re better off pushing him to a SP1 and then punishing.
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Thursday, February 27, 2020.
Schedule Notes: Round 1 of the 4* M.O.D.O.K. and Mojo Featured Arenas begin at 1pm EST. 100% roster availability until Alliance War attack resumes around 2pm EST. The AQ Series begins at 3pm EST.
Kabam dropped more huge news yesterday, revealing the full rewards and a March 11 release date for Act 6.4. Futhermore, the speculation that Weapon X would be the Legends Run Trophy Champion for Act 6 was confirmed by his Champion Spotlight.
As you would expect, the Act 6.4 announcement was the talk of the community, with the rewards, in particular, facing criticism. Check out reactions from RichTheMan and Seatin.
KT1 and Katy Candy looked at the new nodes coming with Act 6.4 to speculate on the best counters.
The master of the perfect evade, MetalSonicDude, shows you how to evade The Collector’s SP2.
If you plan on clearing some difficult content (going for that 6.4 100%?) in Marvel Contest of Champions this March, you’ll need to know when all your champs will be available. Here is the full schedule of 100% roster availability (no AQ/AW) for the month. All times are EST, 2pm is based off of the approximate end of AW attack.
Tuesday, March 3 at 3pm EST – Thursday, March 5 at 2pm EST
Wednesday, March 11 at 3pm EST – Thursday, March 12 at 2pm EST
Friday, March 13 at 2pm EST – Saturday, March 14 at 2pm EST
Friday, March 20 at 2pm EST – Saturday, March 21 at 2pm EST
Friday, March 27 at 3pm EST – Saturday, March 28 at 2pm EST
Sunday, March 29 at 2pm EST – Monday, March 30 at 2pm EST
Here’s my guide for Back Issues (Variant 3) Chapter 1.2.
General Thoughts: For easy paths, stick to the left side of the map. The right side has some problems that you’ll need to have specific counters for.
MVP Champs: Sentinel, Warlock, Stark Spider-Man, Ghost
Global Nodes: +400% Attack and Health Boost Apex Manufacture: Sentinel gains Analysis Charges at 2x normal rate, and attacks deal 1% additional damage per charge. Composite Construction: All Tech Champions are Immune to Ability Accuracy Modification Stack Overflow: Additional Tech Champions on the Attacker’s Team increase the duration of Debuffs by 10% Overclocked: All Champion Classes other than Tech suffer a -50% Base Attack Penalty.
Boss: Magneto
Nodes: Gauss Warp: Each time the defender is struck they gain a Gauss Charge, increasing Block Penetration by 5%. Charges are removed by Shock Debuffs. Limber Enhanced Special 2 Aggression Fury
Boss Fight Notes: You might be thinking Magneto is going to be a pain, because most of the tech class has the #Metal tag. Fortunately, the Global Node that prevents Tech Champions from having their Ability Accuracy reduced prevents Magneto from magnetizing your attackers.
The fight itself isn’t difficult, and as long as you don’t block too many hits, you don’t even have to worry about the Gauss Warp. I used Sentinel for this fight, but you could bring any heavy-hitter. If you are using Sentinel, you’ll only need a few parries, which is good, because Limber is active. Once you get Magneto to 1 bar of power, you can punish his SP1 and fire off an SP2 for big damage (make sure you’re at 100 Analysis). Depending of the level of your Sentinel, repeat this a few more times and you’ll take home the victory.
Lane 1 – Far Left Defenders: Miles Morales, Taskmaster, Hulk Ragnarok, Doctor Octopus, Massacre, Gambit Nodes: Enhanced Abilities, Force of Will (Immune to Ability Accuracy Reduction), Martial Mastery (Stun every 6 hits) (Main Path), +100% Health, Enhanced Special 2, Special 2 Bias, +50% Power Gain (Gambit). Tips: Nothing tricky here, this is a good choice as an easy path. Sentinel can do every fight on the path, but so can pretty much all of the main damage dealer options.
Lane 2 – Center Left Defenders: Black Panther Civil War, Ghost, Diablo, Aegon, Void, Beast Nodes: Aggression Cruelty, Aspect of Evolution (Main Path), +100% Health, Debilitate, Critical, Enhanced Crits (Beast) Tips: Another relatively straightforward path, however I would recommend using someone other than Sentinel for the Void fight. While Sentinel can do it, you probably want to save him for the Magneto boss, and his ramp-up isn’t conducive to a Void match-up. Even if you do get to 100 Analysis Charges, Void is Incinerate Immune.
Lane 3 – Center Right Defenders: Hyperion, Hela, Mordo, Captain Marvel Movie, X-Force Deadpool, Nick Fury Nodes: +50% Improved Power Gain, All or Nothing (Main Path), +100% Health, Rainbow of Power, Redoubled Determination, Duodenum Prod (X-Force Deadpool), Tips: The All or Nothing Hyperion is one of the trickier fights in all of Variant 3. Thankfully it’s the first fight on the path so you can practice. Your two best bets are Ghost with the Hood synergy or Stark Spider-Man. If you are going the Stark Spider-Man route, your play is to stun-lock Hyperion with your SP1. To maximize your stun timer, bring 3 additional techs and Miles Morales. Don’t forget Stark Spider-Man has a power drain as part of his heavy attack, but you’ll likely only have one chance to use that during the fight. If you are looking for another alternative, an alliance mate of mine had good luck with Doctor Doom, but the fight is going to be on the long side with the damage penalty. Still, that’s a lot better than getting SP3’d to death in the first 15 seconds.
Other champions to consider for this path are power controllers such as Vision and Doctor Octopus.
Lane 4 – Far Right Defenders: Punisher 2099, Electro, Annihilus, Rocket Raccoon, Spider-Man Classic, Nick Fury Nodes: Counter Tactics, Combo Lock Tips: So this is one instance where you may have to bring champions other than tech and live with the -50% attack penalty. There aren’t any great tech counters to Annihilus, so you’ll probably need to either bring your top mystic champion, or the Blade Trinity. Bringing Blade also will give you someone to deal with Electro, and that is the direction I took. Use Stark Spider-Man or Ghost for Punisher 2099, and you may also want to consider bringing a big damage mutant like Sunspot or Domino for Nick Fury. Sentinel can round out the team for Rocket, Spider-Man and the Magneto Boss Fight.
Here’s my guide for Back Issues (Variant) 3 Chapter 3.1.
General Thoughts: The two left paths offer straightforward “easy path” options, while the two on the right require more planning and a higher skill level. All the top tech options can do some solid work in this chapter.
MVP Champs: Sentinel, Stark Spider-Man, Warlock, Ghost, Star-Lord
Global Nodes: +400% Attack and Health Boost Apex Manufacture: Sentinel gains Analysis Charges at 2x normal rate, and attacks deal 1% additional damage per charge. Composite Construction: All Tech Champions are Immune to Ability Accuracy Modification Stack Overflow: Additional Tech Champions on the Attacker’s Team increase the duration of Debuffs by 10% Overclocked: All Champion Classes other than Tech suffer a -50% Base Attack Penalty.
Boss: Colossus
Nodes: Hit Me, I Dare You: Colossus gains a Chitin Charge when struck. At 10 charges, they are removed and replaced with a 50% Armor Up Buff lasting 30 seconds. Chitinous Thorns: If Colossus has an Armor Up Buff, the attacker is inflicted with a 50% Bleed Debuff every time contact is made. Enhanced Armor Up Enhanced Abilities
Boss Fight Notes: You’re going to need to bring a bleed-immune champion. Thankfully there are plenty of Tech champions to chose from.
Sentinel is a fine option, but he is a bit hampered in this match-up. Sentinel’s SP1 has a lot of hits, which builds up the charges on Colossus quickly. Additionally, Colossus is now immune to Incinerate, countering Sentinel’s best source of damage. I recommend getting Sentinel to 100 Analysis Charges, and then relying on the Shock damage from the heavy attack until you get a Special 3. This strategy takes advantage of the extended Debuff timer and keeps the hit count down.
The other prime counter for this fight is Warlock, as he also does Shock damage, but any of the other Bleed immune techs such as Vision, Darkhawk, Guillotine 2099, Nebula, and Ultron can do this fight.
Lane 1 – Far Left Defenders: Ghost, Medusa, Nebula, Sentry, Spider-Gwen, The Hood Nodes: Hurt Locker (performing the same special 2 times in a row causes the attacker to lose 50% health, unless the 5 second timer is removed by a heavy) Tips: This is a straightforward path. Since you have parry, you can stun and counter Medusa when she has her Auto-Block active from Fury Buffs. As long as you understand Hurt Locker you’ll be fine. No need to bring any specific counters.
Lane 2 – Center Left Defenders: Iron Man, Darkhawk, Mysterio, Vision Age of Ultron, Yellowjacket, Blue Team Cyclops, The Hood Nodes: Special 1 Bliss & Enhanced Special 1 (Main Path), Hurt Locker (The Hood) Tips: I recommend bringing either Ghost or Stark Spider-Man to deal with Darkhawk. You want to be able to bait his SP1 without taking any damage and keep him from entering a mode. Mysterio is also countered by Stark Spider-Man. The rest of the fights are easy.
Lane 3 – Center Right Defenders: Daredevil Classic, Spider-Man Classic, Ultron Classic, Wasp, Stealth Spider-Man, Nightcrawler Nodes: Spry, Gassed, Can’t Touch This Tips: The nodes here reduce your attack and allow the defender to evade, so this is a path that requires counters and planning. A parry/heavy strategy with Sentinel can work. The extended Debuff timer is your friend. Also remember that Iron Man Infinity War’s replusor attacks can’t be evaded so, he has some value on this path as well.
If you wish to venture outside the Tech class, you can bring Corvus with Proxima, as there are charges to be had on the path.
Lane 4 – Far Right Defenders: Red Hulk, Agent Venom, Ronin, Cull Obsidian, Punisher, Rogue Nodes: Rapid Metabolism (Shrug Debuffs 80% Faster) Tips: The Debuff shrug-off on the path does reduce Sentinel’s effectiveness, but he is still useful. I do think this is a path to go for the big damage and get the fights done quickly, so Stark Spider-Man, Ghost, and Star-Lord are all excellent options. I would save Stark Spider-Man for Punisher so you can utilize the Auto-Evade during his specials, unless you are very comfortable playing Ghost.
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Tuesday, February 25, 2020.
Schedule Notes: Doctor Doom enters the Basic Pool at 1pm EST. The new 6* Featured Crystal, containing Doctor Doom, Mr. Fantastic, Silver Surfer, Squirrel Girl, Nova, and Longshot, debuts at 1pm EST. 100% roster availability following the conclusion of Alliance War attack around 2pm EST. The Alpha Arena begins at 6pm EST.
We received a huge info-dump from Kabam yesterday, with details on everything coming in March including v26.0 Release Notes, as well as the Champion Spotlights for Terrax and Mole Man.
As you might expect, all this information dominated yesterday’s content. Check out reactions on the announcements from Seatin, Katy Candy, and RichTheMan.
Seatin also had time to put up overviews of Terrax and Mole Man.
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Monday, February 24, 2020.
Schedule Notes: Round 2 of the 4* Warlock and Gambit Featured Arenas at 1pm EST. Summoner Sigil Owners, your Solo Event, Gold Quest, and items on a 7-Day timer in the Black-ISO Market reset at 1pm EST. The window to sell Namor and Cull Obsidian closes at 1pm EST. The AQ Series ends at 3pm EST. UMCOC Podcast, Live on Discord at 8pm EST.
Frontline: MCOC 