Marvel Puzzle Quest

(Mahmud Asrar has quickly risen to the tops of artists I am keeping my eye on. His art is super clean and very dynamic)

 Well that was crazy! 4 * Jean Grey or as I affectionately call her, Teen Jean is one of my favorite characters in Marvel Puzzle Quest. Crazy thing is I know I am not the only one that believes that because her and Iron-man Hulkbuster are part of the top tier in MPQ and normally they are paired together for maximum effectiveness. But even outside of the game, Jean has always been one of my favorite comic characters too so it is really awesome she is not only available in a Marvel game (Fox vs Marvel and all) but she is also really, really good.

  Over the past year or so I have slowly built up my Teen Jean to a usable level and I even brought her last green cover before you could not buy covers with Hero Points so she is now 5/3/5 (her ideal offensive build). She has quickly became one of my favorite go to characters in the game a long with her always helpful partner in crime Scarlet Witch, whom I also love in MPQ (funny how things worked out eh?) 

  So only a couple weeks ago, my daily reward was a extra Purple Jean cover which I originally did not need. However because I love Jean so much, I decided to make a dupe for her which I could build differently and make her more ‘defensive’ orientated (i.e give her 5 in blue to really punish people who match 5). In the end, having 2 copies of the one of the best characters in the game is never a bad thing and I could possibly deconstruct her at a later time when I champion my original Jean. With only 1 cover, this sounded like a daunting task tho to rebuild a 2nd Jean from scratch however assistance came in the form of the Prodigal Son PvE.

  Typically this is one of the more fun PvE’s because we take the roles of the villains and we, players actually fight a much better variety of characters. The only problem is that it is a 7 day event. A whole week. For a character I have already maxed covered. I was originally going to not go as hard as I did but with the new reward structure, I could possible get 2 more Jean covers and 3 more Blade covers (which will help in his championing). I knew I had to at least try...

 Even with a score to rival top alliances, I still barely got top 5 and that was mainly due to smart strategy of mine to keep  the main nodes open for as long as I could before I hit them hard and because I was using loaners I did not even have to use any health packs. That one decision alone was what probably push me over 6th and helped me secure my 2nd Jean cover. In the end, it was hard fought but I believe it was definitely worth it (like the Weeknd once said).

The List

- Sort of related to Jean is the fact that I love how twice how they have cast a favorite actress of mine as her in the movies. First we got the gorgeous Famke Jansen and now we have Sansa Stark herself, Sophie Turner who is another fave of mine. I sincerely hope X-Men: Apocalypse surprises me like First Class and Days of Future Past did because the trailers have not done much for me so far. If anything, that means I will get more Sophie and that is not a bad thing.

(Note: the title of this blog must be sang like how BTS does it in their song).

It was teased, it was promised and now it looks like we might have the first of some re-works for ‘low tier’ characters. First up is Pietro!

Here is a look at his new stats, straight from the D3 message boards.

https://d3go.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38705

Overall, I am liking the direction they are going with him. They are not making him overpowered but they are making him more viable. I have been a staunch defender of Quicksilver even before these changes and I never liked it when people tried to make him the Bag-man of the 3 * tier. Here is my post where I tried to make some people see the light:

“ Quicksilver has his uses, I have never been in the camp that he is 'all bad'. Sure the damage reduction on his black is not great but black has never been about the damage, it has always been about the placement. You running Daredevil? Use QS to set up a red tile right next to his red trap and watch the Crotch Kick ensue. You have a moderately leveled Fury? Use black to set up a more likely trigger of his blue. Hard to reach countdown/ invisibility tile? Make it easier on yourself to match. People are also complaining his green got 'nerf' because he lost his random (emphasis on random) critical tile. No, it is a buff because now he gets a locked tile which speeds up his abilities so he can do his black, blue or green faster AND you no longer have the random-ness to account for and a damage buff. Also saying this makes DDQ harder for Invisible Woman is wrong. Before QS would get reap the benefits if you used IW's blue because she'll create more locked tiles for him, now it will only benefit if you are locking a team up tile. This now makes the match up easier for her not harder. I, for one, welcome these changes. He has never been Bagsilver to me and now he seems he can actually do what they have intended for him in the first place, make tons of lock tiles, control the board and do more damage with his 'trademark' blue. Will I run him in high level PvP? No, of course not but I might use him more now. “

It also appears he has a PvP coming up soon so I hope the changes are live before then so some people can actually see how useful Pietro can be.

The List

- I guess this is my first official post since coming back to this blog! I took a long break but I feel I write about this game again.

- Speaking of; I will no longer cover Marvel Avengers Alliance in this blog. It got to the point where writing for both games was burning me out and these days I don’t even take Avengers Alliance as serious as I used too. There were days where I only logged in to gain my daily prize and that was it. Marvel Puzzle Quest however I have been keeping up with, no matter what so it was easy to prioritize which to blog about.

 (Be still my beating heart, its Cyclops on my blog!)

 As followers of this blog know, I've been pretty admant with recruiting Cyclops in Avengers Alliance. I'm simply not a fan of how every man/ woman and their pet used him in PvP when I first started the game. It made me dislike him despite him being a in-expensive powerhouse. I have however came about in two different ways.The first was I have recruited him for my main account and he is slowly being leveled up. I needed to recruit two more heroes to unlock the last stage of Season 1 and also unlock the best stages for farming command points, which I badly need. At only 15 command points, it was hard to turn him down and he is a required deploy in the final stages as well so I killed two birds with one stone. With him and my second hero I've been able to quickly make back most of the command points I used to buy him so that was nice.

  The second is that he is actually one of my main focuses on my 'fun' account and I've been enjoy running over blasters with his overpowered-ness. I mean his level one causing flanked is pretty good for a level one, his level two gives him the ability to remove buffs and put a weak spot on them AND his level six makes his whole team counterattack any attack, this is especially ouch when an opponent uses a all allies attack. I know why people love abusing him because for a 15 CP hero, he is pretty complete and (ab)usable. My fun account is actually focusing on recruiting heroes I normally don't recruit and road-testing them for my main account. So far, I've recruited Daredevil (a person who I don't have on my main) and for a bruiser I think I'll invest in Thundra because I kind of like her from the time I was allowed to play her in the battle against Salvin and co. Daredevil I don't think will ever make it to the main account but you never know with Thundra. Its cool to have access to heroes I normally don't have tho.

  As stated above, I needed two heroes to unlock the final stage and my second hero is an X-Man as well. Or technically, X-Woman.

    Now I've fought Kitty's before in PvP and she has always been a hard hitter but I didn't know it was due to her being phased. I also noticed that Kitty players exclusively use her Shadowcat outfit so I made sure I had enough to buy that right off the bat. Kitty is actually who I am focusing on training right now, especially since Hercules, Taskmaster and Cap. Steve Rogers are complete for now. Now speaking of Kitty, boy can the girl hit like a mack truck. For a person with a low attack stat, she almost triples her normal damage when she is phased and to top it off she starts phased and can counterattack if you use her Shadowcat infiltrator outfit. I don't see her being a PvP contender but man, its fun to see big robots fall to a well timed phased smack in the back. Kitty also came in handy because she is a require deploy to get the Epic Boss in the final chapter and the Epic Boss can sometimes give up to 10 CP for 20 power and well, that's too good to turn down.

  The List

 - So I've been pretty driven to get Scarlet Witch's alternative outfit mainly because I'm a massive SW fan. I however have been told that the outfit is booty and not worth the effort. She also loses a Special Iso slot wherein the SW I'm using now has access to two Special Iso slots if I ever upgrade her to level 13. Since this effort requires a truckload of 200 CP heroes I've decided to invest in a much cheaper (still expensive tho) but much stronger Captain Marvel alternative instead. Right now, its looking okay with Deadpool being my next big purchase. More on that after I actually recruit him.

(Nicolas J Fury by Callyrose which I found on the internet, nice job!)

  Well, after a nice rest from blogging, I'm back at it. Marvel Puzzle Quest's first season is drawing to an end and it looks like my alliance is on track to get a Nick Fury cover (despite some people not really contributing, more on that later). I'm pretty excited for this because it looks like Nick might be the first viable 4 Star character and he is just cool to have. I mean its Nick 'Freakin' Fury. This season took forever and there was a lot of 'meh' tournaments and prizes along the way, especially with Loki and Ragnarok prizes, covers I really have no desire to collect. However due to a commitment to my alliance and because I've invested so much time into it, I decided to stick it out.

  MPQ did however have it first major hick-up in awhile tho with them completely missing up the Heroic Osborn event to get the new Classic Daken

  (I predicted that this would be the Daken outfit they choose and it I was correct, nice).

  The beginning of the event gave tons of points to the early starters at the expense of the later starters. As a normally late PvE starter, I missed the big points rush and I was immediately behind the 8 Ball. After much complaint and fuss on the forums, D3 thankfully extended the brackets to get Daken covers for singles and alliances. I'm pretty much over Heroic events with their limited rosters and long PvE so I decided to grind but not extensively, I even missed one completion deadline because the way the stages was completed was based on points this time and not time based like normal (a horrible idea that I hope they don't replicate). Thankfully despite my breaks and lack of real motivation to grind endlessly to fight even higher leveled bad guys, I was still able to at least score 1 single cover and my alliance pulled through for the 2nd Classic Daken cover. Than the headaches began again with the delayed prizes, it took them 2.5 days to finally sort out the prizes and when we finally got them we had to rush into a Daken centric PvP with Modern Thor as a prize.

   This tournament was a real shark tank and I'm now in a bracket where even 900 + points will not secure me a top 10 position anymore. Combine that with back to back retaliations and me not grinding at the right time made this one a bloodbath. I guess a lot of people are really grinding it out now since the season is nearly over and Modern Thor is like the new ish and everyone wants a maxed out cover one. I was able to barely scrape through a top 25 finish (how the mighty have fallen) and only get 1 yellow cover for him (which I need to finish yellow off so that was nice) and due to some slackers in my alliance PvP-wise, my alliance however didn't score any green covers which I badly needed because Modern Thor's green is beastly when unleashed and I'm only needing one more to max that out too. It was a shame and I talked to my commander about culling some dead weight in the Guild because this time inactivity really costed us.

   The List

  - Because of the complete mess up with PvP scoring and unstable server issues, the season has been extended to included one more tournament which they originally didn't planned for. Unfortunately this tournament is a Ragnarok re-run. Ugh. My least favorite character in MPQ but least the prizes are worth it this time. I might be able to hook up my Psylocke with some new covers. Aiming for 1100 this time, no excuses.

 - Been able to grind out some big wins in SHIELD training whilst I let my shields run out in different PvP's. Doing okay with 1200 + points, might grind some more as we lead into the tail end of this tournament as well and the fact I don't enter PvP's straight away.

 -  Looks like the new chapter in PvE is going to feature Sentry and is a brand new addition to the story. There is also some rumors speculating that it'll be a villain focused PvE since Daken was the latest prize, hmm. I guess we shall see. My villains are sorely under-developed but I can always sink some Iso into villain characters I actually enjoy using like Doom, Hood or Classic Magneto.

 (The Mighty Hercules! Pity he doesn't has his Mace in Avengers Alliance).

  Well that was a much shorter break. I must admit tho it is because I have little events to play in MPQ and I'm out of energy in Avengers Alliance lol. First, lets all give a round of applause for the newest addition to my Avengers Alliance roster. Hercules has always been one of the heroes I liked from day one, especially after road-testing him early in the game. I never really had the chance to recruit him as he was a 90 Command Point character and 90 CP's take a time to build and as of late I've been sidetracked by Gamora's/ Fandral's and Steve's. Heck I still don't have Volstagg despite saying I was going to get him ages ago.

I made the decision to get Herc over Volstagg due to a couple things tho. First Herc is a required character to unlock a premium stage for the Scarlet Witch alternate (which I aim to get one day), second, he also unlocked the final two Incursions (which I crushed and got 5 gold for for clearing all of them) and final 'Hard' stage which unlocked what maybe my new favorite weapon. The Gold Bashenga's Blade maybe one of the coolest weapons I have gotten so far. It not only does a lot of damage clean, it also gets strong as my agent level ups and gives 'Panther Stance' (increasing attack and defense, always a plus) and 'Jungle Warfare' (increase chance of counter attacking) on the whole team. Just using it one time with Herc's built in counter 'Gift of Battle' and Herc counter-attacked an opponent twice for crazy damage. So yes, this was a good investment.

  Right now I am farming his criminally easy Heroic Battle against Thor to unlock his Empowered Iso so I can get his Level 9 'Column Down' as a counter, which would be sweet because it affects all enemies. *EDIT: and just like that I got it on my third try. Awesome that I have access to his a move he normally doesn't get till he reaches level 9 and its a necessary task to unlock more progression so I skipping ahead a bit* On top of that Herc is just bad ass. He soaks damage like Colossus and Thing but instead of just soaking damage or having to counter-attack like them, he actually counters for you and his attacks affect melee and range attacks by 40% depending on what they hit him with. Top it off with his 'Rock of Ages' that damages flying opponents a lot more, we might have a real strong ally on our hands.

  Speaking of allies, Tasky has really come into his own as of late and he is really doing major damage now he is being Iso'd correctly. I mean his 'Quick Shot' now does 1200 plus damage and it can be done repeatedly? Or his version of Sif's 'Flying Sword'/ 'Parting Gift' that can one shot most goons? Awesome. I personally feel Tasky will be a big part of my new season of PvP since this season is nearly over and I don't think I'll get him to level 10 in time.

  Oh and I did mention PvP last blog didn't I? Well now I'm going to say a couple quick things about it. First, Doom is finally after 2 and half seasons, semi retired. It is because I have found my new squad of Marvel Movie Stars. Yep, Fandral from Thor and Gamora from Guardians are my new PvP squad and boy can they do some damage on the right team. As I hoped, Gamora really is a PvP monster, who ability to inflict 'Doom' then trigger it with 'Whirlwind' and than finish them off with 'Execute' is the best 1-2-3 punch so far in this game. Top it off if she is attacking a Blaster she can do the first 2 steps with technically one move. Also the 'Mangle' effect stopping healing is also a god-send and I've noticed less 'Scroll' usages because of it. I am actually enjoying find ways of using the most deadly woman in the universe as she has been called. Also, Fandral, oh man Fandral.

(the movie Fandral, which is what his Avengers Alliance sprite is of course based on).

  Fandral's ability to depower preemptively and inflict 3 stacks of bleeding with his hilarious but dangerous 'Flynning Circus' is another reason why I've actually been doing decent in PvP. I even took out my tanking team and actually put these two on my defensive team as well which has actually won a couple times. Yay!

  Top that off with me finally understanding how Armory bonuses stack and the reason to unlock extra slots = me doing okay for once. I'm probably not going to do better than silver but least I'm not going destroyed like I was.

  The List

 - Was able to get top 5 in the Doom PvP in MPQ. I actually placed 2nd which was pretty cool because I actually was able to win 5 defensive matches, which is a first. 2 of them was whilst I was pushing up the ladder and the other 3 were post shielding. Funny enough, 2 of the wins were against the same person lol. A final defensive win pushed me into the 1000 territory and actually earned me the 1000 progression reward of 1000 Iso. So yep I ended up with 3 new Falcon covers so my Sam is now 3/3/3. I've never built up a 3 Star character so fast but I ain't complaining.

  One thing I am worried about is the news that the Spider-Man nerf that we knew was eventually coming is closer to reality now. I think I might have one more/ two more PvP's before my Super powered Spidey is going to be changed. Now as a person who loves how Spidey lets me play my game, I hope the nerf isn't too bad.

 - Falcon's cover name has been changed from 'Modern' to 'Mighty Avenger' linking directly to the blog's title. Yeah, I planned that.

(Most of the Falcon pics had Cap with him and wanted where he stood on his own).

  Its ironic, the title of this blog is thanks to a K-Pop song called Doom Dada by T.O.P and is named after the new Marvel Puzzle Quest Doom PvP event which kind of took the steam out of the PvE 'Simulator'. I said it took the steam out because for significantly less effort and a whole less grinding, I can get 3 Falcons compared to the 2 I'm getting for a nine week grind. Top it off with the Simulator not being easy and almost impossible at times (I'm looking at you Level 200 plus Wolvie/ Spidey/ Lieutenant team), I made a decision to go as hard as I could but not to push too hard due to said Doom PvP. Near the end I had to rely completely on my Spidey/ Magneto Now team to force opponents into stun lock or I would been killed by many dinosaur bites or sniper shots.

   Ending up with top 50 for both final nodes (missing top 10 by 40 points in Hard, arghh) and top 75 (sneaked in at 62 I believe) in the overall gave me at least one cover and my alliance pulled through and secured me a 2nd cover. Since I don't mind Falcon and he is a 3 Star he might be my end up replacing Magneto Now at a later time because he is so awesome at supporting Spidey and Punisher aka my main team. Not to discredit Magneto tho, Eric has been a cornerstone and one of the reasons why I as well as I did in the end so cheers to him.

(this is an awesome cover by Mark Brooks and really showcases Magneto's mastery of magnetism).

  His only really problem is his health isn't that great especially compared to a maxed out 3 Star which is where I am heading too. Also whilst his Purple is awesome for fueling Spidey's stun lock, I have noticed sometimes I don't need it as much as I used too but Falcon's passive abilities are useful no matter what. It'll be a minute till I max out my Sam tho so for now Magneto still is my go to for a main team.

  As stated above, Doom has another Doom featured PvP and this time my Doom actually has some levels and much more powers he can use. Thanks to the Loki PvP in weekend tournament, I was able to finally earn my first blue Doom cover. I also got another black and one more from my alliance so Doom is sitting pretty at 4/1 compared to the paltry 2/0 he was before. Hopefully combined with his buff I can make top 5 again like I've been doing consistently.

  Onward to Avengers Alliance and things are looking up over there as well. In a funny, isn't that a coincidence moment, Avengers Alliance released their own version of the Simulator which came out pretty close to Marvel Puzzle Quest's version. It's in its early stages but it had 10 stages to try out and each one got progressively harder. At Stage 5 I had to fight Elektra whose sole mission in life was to put as many debuffs on me as humanly possible. It took me a couple tries but I eventually beat her with good ol' Doom. At Stage 7, I had to take down Dragoness who was constantly sitting the stage on fire, luckily Sunfire and Human Torch were perfect counters for that. Stage 8 was really the hardest one and took me the most effort, I could only use Blasters and the other team had multiple moves being Tacticians and this including Mystique getting even more extra moves thanks to Iso doping. I eventually took them down with Ms. Marvel/ Scarlet Witch and my Classic Storm. Funny enough it was Ms. Marvel who really helped in this one, a character I haven't used in forever. Finally Stage 10 looked impossible at first but this is where my Fandral truly shined. With his En Garde! constantly depowering enemies, the 9 bosses in a row didn't stand a chance. Another big helper was Sabretooth who took out his fair share and was only need to be resurrected right at the end. It was an awesome moment and well worth it because I was awarded with 10 gold.

  Funny story tho is I'm currently stockpiling my gold (27 and counting) and I don't even know what I want to invest it in. I could Iso my team with Gold brought Iso's but I'm getting some good drops from PvP so I don't need to waste gold there. I would actually be sitting on 32 if I didn't invest in a 5 gold Iso for Fandral but that was a wise investment because when he counter attacks now, he not only gives opponents dizzy, exposed, slowed and weakened, he also poisons them too hah.

   A much longer blog about my 'adjustment' to PvP is to come but for now, take my word for it. I am eating humble pie about doubting Gamora can keep up in the PvP leagues. She is currently part of the dream team and yes, despite the title of this blog, Doom's day might be over.

   The List

- One thing I don't appreciate is Avengers Alliance's Daily Roulette trolling me with endless 5 Energies for PvP. I have a massive stock of it thanks to the last PvP mix up and I am in no danger of running out. They are giving me water when I'm in a water park. It has happened at least 3 times in the last 4 days. Not cool.

(linking directly to my last post about Nick Fury, we got a perfect pic of him with Steve Rogers from the Winter Solider (great movie btw).

  With Avengers Alliance almost taking a front seat the last couple days, I've decided to dedicate this whole blog to just it.

  Previously I was leveling up Fandral and Gamora and both have came along very nicely. Fandral is now level 10 and I think I will keep leveling him up because his dual classes and his ability to preemptively depower opponents is an awesome skill. Gamora I'm still on the fence about. Sure her skills scream anti PvP but she doesn't seem she'll stand up against a lot of hits. I might level her up just because and try her out because it'll be a waste to spend all that special Iso's on her and not even try her out once. Also her Level 6 skill 'Execute' is awesome on the right opponents.

  However on the road to Volstagg I caught another detour. Last time it was Gamora, this time I saw a chance to get Captain America and his new Steve Rogers variant. With only 3 days left it seem that it was more than a possibility and literally the day it was ending, I was able to get the Scrapper version of him. Since I unlocked Volstagg in time he can wait since Steve was a limited edition one and right now I'm really digging him. I love how his three specific stances he can interchange into without no real cost, combine that with each skill giving him skills like depower, flanked (so attacker always gets a second attack) and fumbling (a single attack always provokes a counter), well you have a debuff characters dream come true. Top it off with him starting with his Range Awareness buff which allows allies to dodge range attacks and Inspiring Leadership which buffs all stats, we have a new PvP contender for sure. Truth be told, I've only been using Doom because I don't feel my other characters can compete against all the brokeness in PvP but this might be the edge I need.

  Also a very recent addition was Taskmaster! After getting a couple dupe covers I finally unlocked him today and even at low levels, Tasky can be pretty scary.

     I only have a couple levels for him so far but even at this low level, he is really impressing the heck out of me. Just with his level 1 'Trick Shot' he automatically does something Hawkeye requires his level 9 to do and so far I have shot 6 arrows in a row. Yep, this from a level 1! Add the fact he can switch classes after getting hit, has a skill where he can gain health back from bleeding opponents AND his level 9 grants class bonuses to everyone on his team, I'm kind of blown away by how powerful he might end up being.

  So as it stands, Doom's days (lol) as my sole PvP partner might be drawing to an end especially if Task steps up to the plate. Cap and Taskmaster maybe? I'm looking forward to it.

 The List

- One of the most hilarious things and kind of annoying with the Spec Ops this season was all season long it was given me paltry gifts in the Daily Roluette. If it gave me Unstable Iso it was 100 at the most. On the last day it gave me 1000. I was like really? I was so trolled. Funny thing is I used that Iso to do tons of deploys (which I rarely do, due to it costing Unstable Iso) and finally completing an item I earned back in the Dark World Spec Ops (3 Spec Ops ago). I haven't even used it once despite all the work. I just did it because I have so much Unstable to spare lol.

   Well friends, its been a minute since I've last blogged. What started as a short break became a longer break till I can't remember when I lasted blogged (dang no time stamps on these things).

  Last time I blogged we were in the middle of The Hunt: Falcon edition and thanks to some hardcore hustling I was able to place top 20 in it and picked up two Falcon (Sam Wilson) covers and thanks to my Alliance I picked up his third cover as well. All in all a great finish.

  Along the way I was able to level up my Marvel Now Magneto (whom I affectionately call Magneto Now) to his level cap of 85 and I didn't regret it. He really has perfect synergy with my Spidey and one of the reasons why I was able to get said Falcon covers. Him, Spidey and Punisher are now my go-to team and I think they are pretty unstoppable right now. It was due to focusing entirely on the PvE that I kind of ignored the Doctors Order PvP and that was a shame because Classic Magneto covers were up for grabs. Thankfully thanks to another stellar performance from my fellow Thieves, I was able to get a much needed Purple cover for him even without playing. Since Purple is one of Classic Mags best abilities this was very sweet.

(Yessir, its the man himself, Sir Ian McKellan as Magneto. I'm looking forward to Days of Future Past despite some questionable decisions *cough* Quicksilver *cough*).

  Then after a short break, I was back at it, with another new PvE featured Falcon (as predicted) and PvP featuring him too (again as predicted). The Simulator is a re-run of previous events and like the previous ones, some of the character restrictions make it a real challenge especially when I can't use my Punisher/ Magneto/ Spidey because one of them is on the other side. This won't end for awhile and once again Falcon covers are up for grabs but its early days so I don't want to wear myself out too early and jack up my scaling too much. His PvP tho is over already and I was able to kill it in this one with a non-stop 2 hour scramble on the night before and was able to get 1119 points at the end of it. I shield for 8 hrs and just rode it out without having to fight again and scored a top 5 finish for some Punisher covers. Sure I didn't need them but heck the Iso and Hero Points made it more than worthwhile and I was able to get my highest score in PvP ever and pick up a 2nd Yellow Falcon cover to boot. Sam, himself is actually pretty good as a support character. His yellow passive ability to buff strike and protect tiles with yellows (something Spidey needs anyway) is awesome and he also has his blue which I actually saw in action. Sure it has a cool-down but being able to over-write rivals strike and protect tiles is awesome. My only beef with him is, his purple ability isn't an attack even tho it is an active ability and I'm afraid if my team dies I'm stuck with Falcon who doesn't do much damage on his own. He is an awesome support character tho and someone I might invest in.

  So since a lot has happened in Avengers Alliance, I have decided to give it a separate blog.

  The List

 - Mid week tournament is another Punisher one, this time with Loki awards. I really don't want to go to hard with this one but I figure I'll need at least one Loki cover to not get locked out of his nodes in the Simulator so I guess I'll try to get at least one cover. Its a shame cause I love using Punisher and since he is the featured character my third can be Magneto (like it was in the last Pun tournament that I killed and got multiple Grey Suit BW covers).

- As stated above, thanks to good placements and Alliance Awards, I'm sitting on a nice stack of Hero Points (should be 1000 as of tomorrow) again. I'm going to have to blow 350 HP for a slot for Loki but other than that, I guess I can use it for shields and more.

(Here comes 3 Strike tiles!!)

  Well I think I have official made the big leagues. The last couple days of Marvel Puzzle Quest have been incredible fun. With this PvE Hunt for Falcon providing tons of Iso, I've been able to level up my Magneto Now to Level 70 and he is actually at 110 when buffed for the event, he really is a monster right now. His purple fueling Spidey is why I am able to keep even the hardest of foes in endless stun lock and take even the hardest nodes down. With Frank's assistance, we are taking down enemies with tons of health points thanks to his 5 red and now thanks to a top 10 finish in the Human Torch PvP re-run and the assistance of my Alliance, I can now make him 3 Black/ 5 Green/ 5 Red which is his best build. I've already noticed the world of difference in damage with a leveled Frank (now 100 and rising) and 3 strike tiles. Definitely a good trade off for the black strike tile/ damage I think.

  Heck, today only, I was able to score a top 10 finish in the PvE as well with the same team I ran during my 2-3 hour PvP run and has pretty much locked in two things. 1) I've found my go-to team 2) I need to finish leveling Magneto to level 85 (his level cap). Both events ended really well despite taking off most of the day for Easter. As mentioned above, my PvP run was literally only 2-3 with a quick 3 hr shield near the end to guarantee my rating and I suffered no losses and very few retaliations on the way. Buffed Johnny is fun too, especially his green when you have a lot of green stockpiled but man, he uses the same colors as Frank so many times I deferred to using a Punisher power over his.

  Overall, it is looking a lot better every day for a top 100 finish in the Hunt to get me at least one Falcon cover and that is what I need to make sure I stay competitive in PvE because as we know the newly released covers normally star in PvP and more importantly PvE post release. Speaking of.

  I really like how they are using the classic Falcon despite him not being the one featured in the Winter Solider. Not that Anthony Mackie didn't do an excellent job, he did but we got the movie Falcon in Avengers Alliance so its nice for MPQ to do something different this time. His powers are pretty cool to, seems he shares a lot of Spidey's colors but Spidey's actives are his passives and Spidey passive (purple) is his active so that might work. Looking at this abilities, his yellow is going to be a nightmare with my Punisher/ Spidey team because Spidey needs yellow so every yellow match now increases the Spidey protect tiles (which are already really good) AND Punisher's strong strike tiles and it seem it gets stronger every level. Combine that with the fact it is passive, I shudder to think how crazy this is going to get. His blue looks a bit unique right now, utilizing Redwing but I'm a bit confused whats going to happen when Redwing returns and he needs at least 8 blue to trigger it and Spidey goes through his blue stockpile very quickly. I guess we shall see. Finally his Purple is active which is great because my Spidey normally has a lot of purple when paired with Puinsher cause neither of them can use it but its great for Spidey's protect tiles so it worthwhile matching but I normally end most Pun/Parker matches with a stockpile of purple if they are not paired with Magneto Now so now I can actually use it and make even more protect tiles? Sweet baby Jesus. Also at level 2, he creates 11 of them plus Spidey's? Falcon really is going to be a big part of my team once he is leveled because his low level stats are very impressive.

  Off to Avengers Alliance, I wasn't able to dedicate much time to it the last couple days even completely ignoring PvP which was awesome because thanks to my tanking team I was able to be at the bottom of the barrel and the teams I was matched up with provided no resistance as I won 5 in a row. Along the way I got my 6 out of 8 Taskmaster covers so its looking good for me to get the Master of Tasks sooner than later. Fingers crossed tho cause now I sense dupe covers galore since I have so many of the covers now. Game wise, I was able to do a couple speed runs as well, collecting some Command Points on the way to getting Volstagg. Gamora is still killing it, her master assassin ability to preempt attacks and dodge follow ups is really awesome and she is just animated so well when she does her level 1. With time and patience and the right Isos I think she is going to go very far.

  The List

(No truer words have ever been said).

  So this is a funny story. I've been constantly 5 staring stages in Avengers Alliance and farming the 5 Command point rewards. Its been a long journey and many times I had to do a stage at least 3 times before they gave me all 5 stars, Along the way, I had a plan in mind. I had unlocked Volstagg at least a couple days before his Covert task ended, I was enjoying using Fandral (still do) so I figured 2 of the Warriors Three would be an awesome team.

  Than Gamora came along. Now as a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy and I'm very excited for the upcoming film (Zoe Saldana woot!), I was super excited to see she was a general 90 Command Point release. It was her or Volstagg tho so I was in two minds for a minute. I than did my research and it looked like Gamora has some awesome debuffs which will be awesome in PvP. She has 'Doom' and if the opponent removes it, they actually get hurt, she has an ability to 'Cower' and stop resurrections. She is basically anti-buff so I made up my mind and invested in her. Sure, I am still going to get Volstagg but since he is now unlocked, I can wait awhile. Now she is mine, I am actually spending gold to Iso her correctly so soon she'll be a PvP monster. I think combined with Fandral and his ability to depower; these two might make me finally use someone other than Doom in PvP.

   Speaking of, PvP is coming along well, I am in it for the Taskmaster covers not the final prize because I know I have no hope getting that at this time. I got my first dupe cover but since I'm 5 for 8, I'm not surprised. Hopefully Taskmaster will be a good investment too cause man, does he have moves.

(Man I love this cover!)

  On-wards to Marvel Puzzle Quest. So the 2nd Heroic Venom actually ended decently for me with a top 10 placement with my moderately powered team in normal. The Deadly one was a different story tho and I was barely able to unlock enough stages so I ended up top 300 there but it really didn't matter too much. Sure it sucked I didn't get a 2nd blue cover for Steve Rogers (his best ability) but two Cap covers are better than none. Overall, Heroic Venom was probably one if not the most frustrating PvE ever. I know the developers are moving away from buffing Spidey but still Bag-Man over Spidey in an event that originally featured Spidey? I just don't know. Also losing to endless Venom stuns, Daken tiles and Bullseye protect tiles spam wasn't fun either. Thankfully it is now over and we have moved on.

  After that was a Steve Roger's centric event which I did pretty good in using my moderately leveled Steve and my super strong Spidey/ Punisher combo. My alliance pulled through this time and I was able to get all three Hulk covers (including a Red that I've never had). Hulk than had his featured tournament and I did top 10 in this one too. I actually did something I've never done before and pushed super hard the night before the end of the tournament and shield for a whole day. It was worth it tho because I was able to secure a top finish with some defensive victories along the way. I really wanted top 5 but I bit off more I could chew with one match and I couldn't beat them so I retreated, healed and went back and ended up with 6th. In the end I only lost 500 Iso so it wasn't super bad. I did get 3 brand new Human Torch covers (again getting a black thanks to my alliance, Thieves Guild in da house!) and that works out great because this weekend's tournament is all Human Torch and he is in the new PvE.

  Speaking of PvE. Magneto Now is buffed for this event!! One of my favorite characters in the game since his PvE centric event not that long ago, finding out how well he synergizes with my Spidey has made him my go-to 3rd player in this event with Punisher taking care of the green, black that Spidey and Mags doesn't cover. Top it off with Falcon being released at the end as a reward (classic Falcon too, not movie Falcon like Avengers Alliance did) and I'm actually enjoying PvE again.

   The List

- After the Human Torch event (Punisher covers as rewards) we are having a Punisher tournament. Now with my almost 100 Frank I think this is going to be a bloodbath. I might actually participate enough in the Human Torch tournament to ensure we earn a green cover because I really want to respec him 3 Black/ 5 Green/ 5 Red from his 4/4/5 for this tournament. Sure the Molotov is awesome but I'm really seeing the benefits of Frank's strike tiles now and its ability to speed up matches.

(the gang's all here).

  Well it has been an interesting weekend. On one hand, I've finally completed all of Volstagg's tasks and unlocked him to be recruited. I was also able to get Fandral promoted pretty quickly where he is level 7 already which is nice and I was able to road test all of the Warriors Three in their Heroic Battle and even tho it was a hard line up (Avengers Thor, Modern Sif, Heimdall in Wave 1 and Loki, Executioner and Enchantress in Wave 2) the Warriors Three are such a cohesive unit that they made it look easy. I mean Fandral's depower ability, Volstagg's damage output or Hogun taking arrow shots because his fellow warriors was hurt was awesome and to top it off, if one Warrior drinks his recovery potion, the other two drank as well and that removed debuff and restored health and stamina. For a group I thought was very random addition at first, I've really grown to like them. I am especially excited for Volstagg because of his blocking level 2 ability which also makes the whole team take 50% less damage (woot!).

(Oliver Coipel again from his epic Thor run).

All I need now is the 90 Command Points required to recruit him and I am working on that. Add that I unlock another Season 1 stage as well which is nice.

  PvP is doing okay, I'm only participating because I can now forfeit hard matches which is great especially when you know you had no hope of winning. Add unlocking Taskmaster lock boxes and 3 out of 8 so far, we are doing okay.

  However on the other hand, the rest of the weekend was married with some really bad decisions and bad games in Marvel Puzzle Quest. I have never had a PvP where I couldn't participate well in and this 'Bad is Good' Dark Avengers only was the first. I tried to beat 6-7 different varying teams with my rather paltry 58 Ares/ 30 Venom / 30 Raganrok and I couldn't win one match. Not one. It constantly cost me health packs and stops in the prologue to heal my team but yes this was probably the most frustrating thing ever. Nearly ever match ended with me getting dominated by a high level Ares and left with my least favorite character Ragnarok as my anchor. Add Rag being complete crap since his nerf and I don't know why I even bothered. I even wasted Iso getting Venom to 30 thinking it'll make a difference and some on Ragnarok to get him to 30 but nothing. I'm marking this attempt down as a complete fail and I'll purposely avoid this event again like the plague (kind like how I don't care for Divine Champions either). Thankfully its back to business as normal now with a typical one buffed hero PvP event for this week early tournament. Sure my Steve Rogers isn't great but Spidey and Punisher should carry him.

  Also kind of related with the Heroic Venom event which I barely scrapped through thanks to having a buffed Torch and moderately leveled Psylocke and Black Panther. Getting top 100 wasn't a massive achievement but least I got me a new red Cap cover. Some of those matches with goons feeding Yelena/ Ragnarok powers with their built in AP gain, Bullseye and his cot dang protect tiles and Daken's strike tiles all over the place made it a very frustrating experience and its being re-run. Yay *sarcasm* I also purposely skipped the hard version of Heroic Venom because seriously, I couldn't even do really well in the normal one. I think I'll least give it a try this time around tho in the re-run.

(Slowly but surely I am putting this group together. I now have Fandral and Sif both based on their movie/ modern outfits and Volstagg is around the corner. Its a pity that the one Asian character Hogun needs to be brought with 200 whooping CP's tho).

  For people who don't know, the titles is a reference to one of my favorite shows, 'Game of Thrones'. I felt it fit because Arya's Needle sword reminds me of a rapier, Fandral's weapon of choice. Speaking of Fandral, the dashing one is rather impressive even at a low level. His passive ability to put distraction on his foes and make them miss is happening a lot and that is always a good thing. Top it off with his dual class status (Infiltrator and Tactician) makes him a double threat against many foes. Right now, paired with a Infiltrator Spidey in Avengers Alliance, they are running havoc on my favorite leveling up stage (aka Dormmy's unlockable stage). So far, he is really making the 90 point investment worthwhile and to top it off he will help me get Volstagg so like his dual class, I get double the pleasure, double the fun lol.

  Speaking of, I am one measly gold piece away from 20 and being able to skip the epic Destroyer battle which would have required me to purchase many heroes I don't own just for deploys. Of and the actually battle itself I heard isn't easy either. After that, the Warriors Three simply need to win their Heroic battle and boom, Volstagg before his Covert task expires. I hope to get Fandral up to level 9 before I attempt this battle but we shall see.

  Onwards to Marvel Puzzle Quest. I decided to enter the Hot Shot/ Human Torch only tournament and I did okay the early morning of the event and placed pretty high. Most battles went pretty quickly thanks to my teams 3 cover buffed Human Torch/ Spidey/ Punisher duo, with Frank killing most Johnny's with one shot of his red (always satisfying). There was some craziness where people paid to upgrade their Torches to much higher levels and one battle was up against a nearly full level Torch which didn't end well at all. All I can say is that a high level, The Human Torch can be pretty fearsome. Especially his green attack if he has a lot of green because the endless buffed green attack wiped out my team. I decided to shield over night to get some rest and that prevent a lot of overnight/ early morning hits but in the end it was a very bad idea because I ran out of Hero Points to shield for the rest of the day. Hit after hit, I fell out of the top 10 and in the end I was happy to end up with just top 25. Sure I'm really not need Ragnarok covers (especially since he was nerfed so badly) but the Iso/ Hero Points was nice. My alliance did a great job for me as well and secured me a green cover for Rags as well so I did end up with two covers despite my okay placing. With the Dark Avengers only event it actually gives me a reason to level him so I might chuck him a bone or two so I can get least get top 300. Probably use Ares as my main striker (get to see if his respec works well, thanks to the Torch progression award, I was able to make him 5/3/5 with a new 5 yellow instead of 4 red which I rarely used anyway) and Venom as my stunner. Also it'll be a nice change to not have to deal with the same teams I have been dealing with.

  Also HT related is the Heroic Venom event, this event has not been easy due to its very restrictive characters allowed. I am finally doing okay with my Psylocke/ Black Panther/ Human Torch set up but man, I am going through healing packs due to downed members so many times. Top it off with both HT and BP both being 'soft' capped due to no new covers for them and Psylocke's blue being worthless and well its not a fun time for all. Only good thing is its affecting a lot of others too. In the end I hope I end up with at least one Steve Rogers Cap cover.

  The List

- Another Steve Rogers Cap event in the new week. Hopefully with good placement my Cap can actually do some damage this time around. I still see him as being cannon fodder tho cause Cap in PvP just isn't that great, even his new incarnation.

(yep, his finally here!)

(Okay, its pretty much a given that Grey Suit Black Widow pics are not easy to come by soooo have this awesome picture of Scarlet Johansson as BW instead).

  Now that was fun. Not even in a sarcastic way either, I actually really had fun this Grey Suit Natasha only tournament. I think it was a combination of me having her best asset (5 green sniper rifle) and a pretty easy ride to the top (only one loss the whole tournament and it was because I bit off more than I could chew with a maxed out Spidey/ Widow and Magneto team). I ended up with a uncontested top 5 spot and 2 new Psylocke covers (no black one tho which I really wanted/ needed).

  From day one, I always like GSBW. Sure she has fallen into no usage since the advent of many other strong contenders but in this tournament, if you combine my new respec that allowed me to make multiple green with her purple power (6 instead of the 5 I used to have) that caused chain after chain or the fact that the desert give you green with its easy to trigger Oasis power or if you combine both (cause a multiple to fall near environment tiles so I can trigger back to back Oasis'!) and I had nothing but fuel for Sniper Rifle. Doing 2000 plus damage to all opponents, being able to aim it as well and a practically a board reset was integral for win after win. Heck in the last hour I was able to go from 8th into top 5 with three back to back wins against very strong opponents. This was also awesome because I shielded after my quick score run and was able to shield myself against three attacks literally a minute after I shield. I had arch-angels (lol) watching over me this tournament that was for sure. My favorite win had to be against a team with a maxed Widow/ Modern Thor and a 122 Steve Rogers (dude had to pay for these covers, no way you could earn full covers from just progression/ tournament alone) and I finished him no sweat.

(she has her eye on you. Phil Noto (yay another Phil) delivers a striking cover I must say).

  Now another derp moment. I didn't realize until the last moment, we had  BW tournament right after a Cap tournament which makes perfect sense because Black Widow was such an important part of the Winter Solider. Scarlet killed it as well, I just love how she brings the smarts as well as the sass so well to Natasha. Like how Chris has became Cap, Scarlet has cemented her role and made the Black Widow truly hers.

  The List

(I literally just figured this out. Marvel Puzzle Quest's latest PVE event was pretty much a Captain America event to tie in with his movie, the prize at the end was Human Torch tho, who was played by Chris Evans, who went on to play Captain America for Marvel. Hah, how is that for connections!)

  Well that was a hard slog but boy the prizes are sweet. I ended up top 10 (even tho only top 20 mattered in the end lol) for the latest PVE MPQ event and I am now the proud owner of three Torches. I earned 2 and thanks to my ever growing Thieve's Guild alliance I was able to secure his third cover as well. All in all, a good ending. Top it off with 3000 extra Iso and some Hero Points (which I put to good use by buying a roster spot for Johnny). At the beginning of the event, I was mainly using my maxed out Marvel Now Thor, Spidey and mixing up the third member, using Steve Rogers Cap when I need too. I couldn't resist Thor being so overpowered and it was definitely helpful. However near the end of the event where enemies health levels sky rocketed, I actually started relying on The Punisher and Marvel Now Magneto (MNM) as my go to team with Spidey. MNM and his awesome ability to create blue tiles for Spidey was awesome to start stun lock chains, Frank was putting out strike tiles and his red ability was finishing opponents all over again and his Molotov was always awesome to slowly wipe out an opponent. I really like this team and I think they might become my new PvP team once they are both leveled up. Heck most of the Iso earned in this event is going to Frank. Sure there was some tight spots, one match Spidey was taken out super early and it fell upon MNM to match purple tiles and use that to create blue tiles and 5-4 piece combos to take out countdown tiles. It was probably one of the few times I lost Spidey and didn't just give up, I persevered and won it and it was worth a big chunk of points too. Another event saw me lose Frank early on and it fell upon MNM and Spidey to kill some heavy hitters, it was a slow burn but eventually they fell to the blue/ purple synergy. It was a great feeling.

     (Bagley again, classic clean pencils. Got to love it).

  Another big piece of the puzzle that was required for my good placement was having a Steve Rogers Cap. His missions were so much easier than all others and they were still worth plenty of points so I purposely saved them till near the end of the event and did them. Maximum gain, minimum effort which ensured I still got points and placing. Sure, my 1/2/1 Cap wasn't that strong and he couldn't even take out any countdown tiles like my other Cap could but having him tank hits for Spidey was useful as well so thumbs up solider.

  Along the way, I did okay in the Wolverine re-run tournament, which was hotly contested and getting a new red Steve Rogers cover and in the Cap tournament, I was able to make top 25 (in only 2 hours, woot!) and pick up 2 Grey Suit Black Widow covers, one which I used to respec her to 5/3/5 now so her purple skill is even better. Combine that with her own tournament this week, I'm in a good spot to place well in this one. Later this week sees a Human Torch themed tournament so we can test drive our new hot rod (pun intended) and a re-run Venom heroic event (fingers crossed Spidey is buff cause that'll be awesome!).

  The List

- Was able to see Captain America: The Winter Solider and no spoilers, it was incredible. Probably one of the best Marvel movies to date and easily the best since the Avengers (sorry Thor 2). Also Sam Wilson/ Falcon was the ish and Chris Evans IS Captain America now. He owns that role like how Robert Downey Jr owns Iron Man and Hugh Jackman owns Wolverine. Scarlet Johansson so needs a Black Widow movie as well, girl was hot like fire.

(Bucky freakin' Barnes)

  So first off, apologies. This blog has been in the making for a couple days but I've just been so busy. Ironically a lot of stuff has been interconnected lately so it kind of works out.

  First, the Simulator has ended and utilizing rubber-banding and some seriously on and off grinding I was able to place 1st overall and picked up my third Invisible Woman cover

   (Epting again, This picture of Susan Richards is just perfect. Sure MPQ has her original outfit and not the FF variant but eh, beggars can't be choosers).

  I don't see myself using Sue but its just cool to finally place # 1 in a PvE event. Also an added benefit was the two Steve Rogers covers I earned and thanks to my Alliance, I have all three of his covers. Good deal I must say. Getting Sue is kind of funny because I just brought her husband and now her brother Johnny in Avengers Alliance.

  Once again linking things nicely is that Johnny is the new character available in MPQ and he can be earned at the end of the red Iso event. Which is funny because this event is Steve Rogers/ Cap's show and its timed perfectly with the Winter Solider movie coming to theaters timing perfect with the new Special Ops in Avengers Alliance featuring Steve Rogers Cap. Everything is connected indeed.

  So now we have two events in both of my games with a big focus on Captain America. Now, I know Avengers Alliance is good for timing their Special Ops around the time a movie drops but this is the first time Marvel Puzzle Quest has done an event to tie in well with a movie (a good example was MPQ not doing anything PvE related to Thor when Thor: The Dark World was out which was a big ball drop). I am liking the Avengers Alliance event so far but it is Special Ops and we know my feeling about Special Ops and its reliance on Unstable Iso. One cool thing is Falcon is the unlockable character and I have already test driven the new Steve Rogers variant costume. I'm liking how he has a new skill at Level 2, which has multiple uses and is a quick action. I might actually invest in getting him now. Pity I've spent all my Command Points on aforementioned Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic.

  The List

- Upcoming tournaments in MPQ include A Wolverine re-run which I can actually participate in now I have 2 Wolvie's instead of just the one I had last time. Sure my X-Force one is super low level but eh it better than getting attacked and not being able to do anything about it. Also Steve Rogers Cap as a prize, I can't turn this down since I need covers for him cause as he stands 1/1/1 Steve ain't doing jack in the PvE lol.

(Mike Deodato's usage of shadows and lighting really makes him one of my favorite artists. He also draws an awesome Shang Chi and it makes me wish that Shang was in Marvel Puzzle Quest or Avengers Alliance).

  Well, its almost that time again. As we draw closer to the end of the Simulator, it looks like I'm in a good position to get top 10 at the very least, top 2 if I'm very lucky. This event, utilizing rubber-banding, a clear strategy of how to clear stages plus having each of the buffed heroes for every round has made me get closer to my goal of a top PvE finish in forever. Normally, I would be placing top 50 in these type of events but this event I have consistently placed top 10 at the end of every mini-event. Now I'm in a perfect position to get 3 Steve Roger's Cap variant covers (2 thanks to my hard work and 1 thanks to the hard work of my Alliance). Especially cool is, I actually get the much coveted blue skill which I personally feel is going to make Steve Roger a pretty good character. I mean the original Cap could stun but Steve can stun and leave a very strong protect tile as well. I am certain he isn't going to be a PvP beast but judging by how much MPQ loves buffing him for events, its a good idea to have him.

  This event was also awesome because it showed me the power of a leveled Ares and has got me interested in putting some Iso into him so he can be a viable third character in PvP, especially with how with Spidey, he can hurt them with Sunder and not worry about his health yellow tile getting match because the opponent is stuck in stun lock. Combine that with his awesome green attack and we have a beast in the making. He however has taken a short break during this last leg because Modern Thor uses the same colors and his green affects all opponents very badly due to his buff (still got no red covers for him tho and his maxed out now).

(Oliver Coipel does it again. Sif is wearing her classic outfit tho, not the movie variant which I am rocking right now).

This event however in the last 12 hours has made me mighty frustrated tho. Originally the Patch/ Loki/ Model 35 match wasn't that hard but I have now lost twice in a row against them in hard mode. Its something about getting a bad board with barely any blue for stun lock plus Loki doing his trickery board mix up and Model 35 having a very spam-able yellow ability which creates a sea of protect tiles and does it does moderate damage. I know I can beat them but its crazy how they went from no sweat to making me waste all my healing packs.

  The List

- Still building up Sif in Avengers Alliance. I won't lie, I have kind of put it on the back-burner so I can focus on the Simulator. I have at least 18 plus more days to unlock Volstagg tho so hopefully it is doable. I also need to build up my CP for Human Torch and Gold to skip one of the tasks.

- One cool thing about Sif is she is immune to a lot of debuffs due to being an Asgardian. I cracked up when a Mindless One hit me with 'Stare into the Abyss' debuff and all it did was damage. Between that and my agent's Empowered Iso, I now only need to make Nightcrawler immune to 'Stare...' and we are killing it.