Summoners!
It’s Episode 66 of the Contest Realm Podcast! In this episode Rich & I discuss week three of Summer of Pain, the July 4th Deals, v32.0, all the insanity that was Loki Episode 4, and Rich begins his Future Revolution adventure.
-Dano357
Champion Release Schedule – Hercules & America Chavez
Summoners!
If you are looking to acquire Hercules and America Chavez in Marvel Contest of Champions here are some important dates to mark on your calendar. Please note that Kabam can make changes to the Arena and Basic Pool release schedules, and all these dates are based off my understanding of their champion release process.
Hercules
7/15/21 – 1st Arena
10/5/21 – 6-Star Featured Crystal
11/2/21 – 5-Star Featured Crystal
11/30/21 – Basic Pool (Projected)
1/6/22 – Basic Arena (Projected)
1/11/22 – 6-Star Basic Pool
America Chavez
7/29/21 – 1st Arena
10/5/21 – 6-Star Featured Crystal
11/2/21 – 5-Star Featured Crystal
12/14/21 – Basic Pool (Projected)
1/11/22 – 6-Star Basic Pool
1/20/22 – Basic Arena (Projected)
-Dano357
Around The Battlerealm – July 4, 2021
Summoners!
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Sunday, July 4, 2021.
Schedule Notes: Sunday Arenas begin at 1pm EST. 100% Roster Availability begins at 3pm EST following the conclusion of the Alliance Quest Series. The Alpha Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Jnik and SAS take on RISEN in Alliance War.
-Dano357
The Week Ahead in MCOC – July 4-10, 2021
Summoners!
Next week in Marvel Contest of Champions brings the v32.0 Update and the start of July’s events!
Alliance Wars Seasons
We are currently in Alliance War Season Season 27. Rewards eligibility will lock on Friday, July 9 at 6pm EST, and the season will conclude on Tuesday, July 20.
For daily updates and the latest news, please follow @FrontlineMCOC on Twitter.
Full Roster Availability (No AW/AQ): 100% Champion Availability starting at 3pm EST on Sunday, July 4 through Monday, July 5 at 2pm EST. There will be a second window from 2pm EST on Tuesday, July 6 through Wednesday, July 7 at 3:15pm EST.
Sunday, July 4: Sunday Arenas begin at 1pm EST. 100% Roster availability begins at 3pm EST following the conclusion of the Alliance Quest Series. The Alpha Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Monday, July 5: The Summoner Sigil Solo Event, Gold Quest, items on a 7-day timer, and the Featured Crystals in the Black-ISO Market reset at 1pm EST. Round 2 of the Colossus Basic Arena and Claire Voyant Featured Arena begin at 1pm EST. July 4th Weekend deals end at 1pm EST. 100% Roster Availability ends at 2pm EST. Incursions Milestones and Top Zone Bonuses reset at 2pm EST.
Tuesday, July 6: 100% Roster Availability begins at 2pm EST. Alliance Quest Enlistment opens at 3pm EST. Expect to see v32.0 available for download today.
Wednesday, July 7: June events end and July events begin at 1pm EST. Week 4 of Summer of Pain begins at 1pm EST. The Alliance Quest Series kicks-off at 3:15pm EST, ending 100% Roster Availability. The Tier 4 Basic Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Thursday, July 8: Round 1 of the Jubilee Basic Arena and To Be Announced Featured Arena begin at 1pm EST.
Friday, July 9: Alliance War Season 27 rewards eligibility locks at 6pm EST. You must be in an alliance for matchmaking, play 5 wars with that alliance, and end the season with that alliance to be eligible to receive season rewards.
Saturday, July 10: Incursions Milestones reset at 1pm EST.
Looking for more content from Frontline: MCOC?
V32.0 Release Notes
July 2021 100% Roster Availability Windows
July 4th Thronebreaker Cache Offers
-Dano357
100% Roster Availability Windows for July 2021
Summoners –
If you plan on clearing some difficult content in Marvel Contest of Champions this July, you’ll need to know when all your champs will be available. Here is the full schedule of 100% Roster Availability Windows (no AQ/AW) for the month. All times are EST, 2pm is based off of the approximate end of AW attack.
Sunday, July 4 at 3pm EST through Monday, July 5 at 2pm EST.
Tuesday, July 6 at 2pm EST through Wednesday, July 7 at 3:15pm EST.
Tuesday, July 13 at 2pm EST through Thursday, July 15 at 2pm EST.
Tuesday, July 20 at 3pm EST through Thursday, July 22 at 2pm EST.
Wednesday, July 28 at 3pm EST through Thursday, July 29 at 2pm EST.
Friday, July 30 at 2pm EST through Saturday, July 31 at 2pm EST.
Note: 2pm EST = 6pm GMT.
-Dano357
Around The Battlerealm – July 3, 2021
Summoners!
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Saturday, July 3, 2021.
Schedule Notes: No schedule updates.
Still evaluating the July 4th Deals? Check out my breakdown of the Thronebreaker Cache Offers and RichTheMan’s thoughts on the deals.
Vega and 4Loki take on ELITE in Alliance War.
-Dano357
Crystal Opening – July 4th Deals 2021
Summoners!
I’ve just spent 18K units on the July 4th offers. Let’s see what it gets me.
-Dano357
Thronebreaker Cache Bundles – July 4th Weekend 2021
Summoners!
July 4th Weekend Deals are here! But do they represent value for your hard earned (or purchased) units?
So the short answer is yes, based on my updated Unit Value Spreadsheet for Thronebreakers, which has just been updated with the 2021 July 4th Deals.
Feel free to use it to make your own analysis on the deals by changing the unit values. Uncollected and Cavalier players are welcome to customize it for their progression offers as well.
Ok, let’s get into the deals!
This isn’t a crazy offer, and most players won’t be excited by the 5-Star materials, but you have to get it to progress up the deal ladder. Still, it’s half a 6-Star and a generic 5-Star Gem for 1K units, so it’s not bad.
The 4K deal usually isn’t great value (sometimes it’s actually negative value), but this is a solid deal. 6-Star Stones are tough to come by for free-to-play Summoners, as are Nexus crystals. 3 full Tier 5 Basic is enough to Rank 2 a 6-Star, and the Tier 6 Basic shards puts a small down payment on your first Rank 4 6-Star.
We’ve got two 10K offers to evaluate, so this is where things start to get interesting. In the past, 1 of the 2 deals represented significantly greater value. This year, the two deals are actually pretty close in value, but are geared toward different types of Thronebreakers.
The Superior Nexus bundle is geared toward “average” Thronebreakers who need to grow their roster and an immediate prestige boost. Even though the Rank Up gems are random, they still contain a ton of materials. The 2020 6-Star Nexus is a pick 1-of-10, which almost guarantees a great champ. The 2020 list is amazing, as the options include Immortal Abomination, Apocalypse, Black Widow Deadly Origin, Cosmic Ghost-Rider, Dragon Man, Guardian, Hit Monkey, Longshot, Mojo, Mole Man, Professor X, Red Goblin, Sorcerer Supreme, Spider-Ham, and Tigra. If you’re going this route (like me), make sure you list out your top choices because it’s going to be tricky making that decision on the fly.
The Superior Catalyst Bundle is for Thronebreakers who have a path to their first Rank 4 6-Star and need to stay on top. There is a significant amount of Tier 3 Alpha and Tier 6 Basic in this deal. Usually I feel like Kabam makes players “overpay” for chase resources in the Cache Deals but this is actually pretty good. In fact, it’s a slightly better unit value than the Nexus Bundle, but most players can’t use the materials right away, which should be a strong consideration.
A full Tier 5 CC Selector is also very valuable, and the 6-Star Stone Selectors are effectively generic. Some players may have preferred 6-Star Shards over the 6-Star Featured Crystals, but let’s face it, the players this offer is geared toward need Rank 4 materials at pretty much any cost and everything else is a nice throw-in.
A 6-Star Generic Gem for 3K units? Yes, please! I’m pretty sure 95% of Thronebreakers who get this far are going to spend the extra 3K units. A 6-Star Generic Gem is still insanely rare and can change your account.
Well, that’s it for my review. Let me know what you thought about the deals and if you pulled any great champs from the offers.
-Dano357
Around The Battlerealm – July 2, 2021
Summoners!
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Friday, July 2, 2021.
Schedule Notes: The “Starfall” Motion Comic premieres at Noon EST. 4th of July Weekend deals go live at 1pm EST.
XN Interviews has just posted their latest episode featuring Marvel Contest of Champions Creative Director Gabe Frizzera.
MetalSonicDude solos Summer of Pain Mysterio with Apocaplyse.
-Dano357
MCOC Release Notes V32.0 – July 2021
Summoners!
Hercules and America Chavez join The Contest, the Summer of Pain continues, and the Summoner Showdown returns this July! Expect to see v32.0 available for download on July 6.
Read the Official Release Notes.
V32.0 HIGHLIGHTS
STARFALL – EQ
ASSAULT OF OLYMPUS – SQ
HERCULES
AMERICA CHAVEZ
RONIN, DIABLO, BISHOP BUFFS
SUMMONER SHOWDOWN
SUMMER OF PAIN
FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS
STARFALL – EVENT QUEST
In July’s Event Quest, Captain Marvel teams up with the Summoner to deal with instabilities with the borders of the Battlerealm. The pair discover star-shaped portals, inadvertently created by America Chavez. The portals have also transported Hercules to the Battlerealm, and along with him hundreds of new enemies.
Howard the Duck decides to join in on the fun as our heroes attempt to set things right and along the way learn more about the past and future of the Battlrealm.
SIDE QUEST – ASSAULT ON OLYMPUS
In the Side Quest, help Hercules prepare for an epic assault. This quest will feature a login calendar that will give you an entry fee (Club of Hephaestus) which you can use to Train (earn catalysts) or Recruit (earn shards). As always, look for a full breakdown here on Frontline early next week!
HERCULES
The next champion to join the Contest will be the Summoner’s Choice Champion: Hercules! Hercules is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmena, and is a Cosmic Champion. Thanks to his Olympian heritage, Hercules has demigod level strength, stamina, and durability.
Hercules first appeared in Marvel Contest in Journey into Mystery Annual #1 in 1965 where he clashed with the Mighty Thor. When he first appeared, some people doubted he was the Hercules of myth, but he is in fact the real deal and is over 3,300 years old. Since then, Hercules has appeared in the main-616 comic universe 700 times and been a member of both the Avengers and the Defenders. He played a key role in World War Hulk as the guardian of young Amadeus Cho and also destroyed the Thor clone “Ragnarok” during the first super-hero Civil War. Hercules has not appeared in the MCU, although movies like the Eternals and the She-Hulk series could provide possible introduction points for him.
Look for Hercules early access bundles on July 8 and his first arena on July 15.
AMERICA CHAVEZ
America Chavez will be the second champion to join the Contest in July. She is a Mystic champion with abilities including flight, super-speed and strength, and the ability to create “Star-Portals” that allow her to travel through space and time, and even the multiverse itself. Look to see America Chavez in the Featured Arena on July 29
America Chavez is a relatively new Marvel character, created by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta and debuting in 2011’s Vengeance #1. She is not native to Earth-616 but in fact comes from a dimension outside of time called the Utopian Parallel. Since being displaced to the main Marvel comics timeline she has participated in Civil War II and joined the reformed West Coast Avengers, and appeared in over 140 Marvel Comics. America Chavez has not appeared in the MCU.
CHAMPION BUFFS
Ronin, Diablo, and Bishop will all see buffs in July. The buffs will go live as soon as you download v32.0.
SUMMONER SHOWDOWN
The Summoner Showdown returns on July 12. While the format is similar to last year, the competition is restricted to Thronebreaker players and there is an entry limit of 35 attempts per round.
SUMMER OF PAIN
The Summer of Pain continues with 4 more fights in July, and Thronebreakers will receive access to extra difficult objectives that need to be completed to earn top rewards.
BUG FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS
● The full Signature Ability description of a Champion will now be visible before a Champion is Awakened.
● Jubilee: Fixed an issue where Heavy attacks would whiff when thrown consecutively.
● Diablo: Base set damage has been changed to energy damage instead of a mix between energy and physical.
● Hulk (Immortal): Updated info page to specify that 15% gamma is required to trigger Immortality.
● Old Man Logan: Updated Old Man Logan’s Special Attack 3 Armor Penetration to be more consistent with how we calculate this for other champions and added this information to his info page.
● Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan): Fixed issue during Special Attack 3 where her arm would not be visible.
● Vulture: Updated the Special 1 and Special 2 Attack’s Power Drain to interact with other buffs and champion abilities within the Contest.
● Kingpin: Updated the HUD icon for the Overpower Buff so it will not be confused with a Fury Buff.
● XL Champions: Fixed issue where the legs would cause visual clipping during the run-in animation.
● Mister Negative: Fixed issue where the Dexterity Buff would occasionally not trigger.
● Annihilus: Updated info page to specify that his obliterating strikes purify incoming stun debuffs and is not an immunity.
● Purgatory: Fixed issue where the victory screen would take 20 seconds to appear instead of the usual 3.
● Special Chaos Inversion Buff: Updated HUD icon to display the reverse controls icon.
● Ant-Man: Fixed issue where the opponent could block after being hit by the first hit of Ant Man’s Special 1 Attack.
● The Gloves Are Off Buff: Fixed issue where the Increased chance to trigger a Fury would not exceed a 45% increase.
● The Overseer – Space Surfers Synergy: Updated info page to specify that the Precision obtained is a buff.
● The Overseer: Updated the Auto Block pause description to better specify the functionality of this ability.
● Mangog: Fixed an issue where the Special 3 Attack would not blackout the entire screen as a defender in Oscorp Lab.
● Smorgasbord Buff Node: Fixed issue where Platinumpool was unable to be armor broken after Medusa used her Special Attack 3.
● Kinetic Brewing Buff Node: Due to the Diablo update, this Buff Node is no longer compatible with Diablo’s kit. Therefore, this Buff Node is being removed.
● Yondu: Updated the info page to include a missing line: “The strength and precision of Yondu’s Yaka Arrows allow it to trigger Critical Hits and Abilities through an enemy block”
FINAL THOUGHTS
There isn’t a lot of new information in the release notes as we’ve known Hercules and America Chavez were going to be joining the Contest for the past month. I think how this month is received will largely depend on the quality of the two new champions, the difficulty of the Summer of Pain Thronebreaker objectives, and the side-quest rewards. We’ll see what happens next week when v32.0 becomes available for download.
-Dano357
Frontline: MCOC 