Post-Patch 1.9 - Villain Siege Tips

So it's day 2 and I've found some helpful tips for the community, but keep this in mind:

• This is endgame content.
• ISO-8 at max rank isn't necessary.
• Max gear sets matter depending what that character role is.
• Leadership and team up bonuses help.
• Iron Man & Sharon Carter are a must for their Leadership.
• Loki can deal significant damage to any of the bosses as long as you enclose the bosses inside your box of clones.

LOKI STAGE

Currently the most difficult VS bosses. The small space, the growing number of clones and the possibility of being frozen temporarily hindering your mobility will test your patience. I would highly recommend saving your best geared characters for him and rank him as the hardest boss of the 3.

• The first tip is don't retry after a wipe. If you exit and retry, the Loki clones reset, but will spawn at a quicker rate.
• Characters that force push and move their targets as their specials go through the animations are recommended. Captain America was God-sent by constantly moving Loki around the map and being able to guard break critical moves definitely extended his life.
• Characters with specials that make them mobile as they attack are important overall as noted. Elsa comes to mind.
• Characters with multiple phasing/i-frame attacks are great avoiding blasts and specials, such as Yellow Jacket.
• Summoners & traditional kiters are "okay" but not as optimal due to limited space and Loki often moving out your summoners's blast range.
• Here's the key: You want to deal the most damage possible while avoiding bolts from the clones. Specials that grant indirect mobility and pushing are favored over traditional hit/run since Loki's Energy Barrier will negate slow DPS.

ULTRON STAGE

The gimmick here is what you would expect from a high level Ultron. He starts off doing his robot thing and summons adds. If your characters don't have AoE attacks, this might be a major problem for you as those adds will eventually kill you before Ultron does.

I was able to blow through Ultron with 2 characters without much issues. Unfortunately, not many players have access to Loki, so this might not help you at all.

So what you want is either Sharon Carter or Iron Man as the leader and have Loki (maxed geared if possible) to create a box of death. Just like Alliance Battles, run up to your target, spawn your clones on top of them and force them move into the center of your spawns. While doing that, keep Energy Barrier up at all times while spamming your attacks. Your timers should be immediately available back to back, so the entire fight, you're just enclosing Ultron and his spawns into your box of death.

If you don't have a Loki, you will need characters with access to AoE (area of effect) attacks, such as Iron Man and Daisy. Again, the clones will probably kill you before Ultron does. The area is large enough to kite properly, but be aggressive due to the timer.

YELLOW JACKET STAGE

Probably one of the coolest stages in the game, but leaves very little room for kiting. Similar to Bullseye in VS, you'll encounter Ultron spider adds as the fight progresses. They move at a slower rate, but their explosions will hurt as much. In addition to that, you'll have train tracks spread across the stage. There will be a glowing indicator on each track that will warn you a train will be rolling through. Getting hit by the train will cause major knock back. Yellow Jacket himself is just like fighting him in Battle World, so don't expect anything too gimmicky outside of the stage itself.

He's probably the easiest of the 3 new bosses, but will require maxed out heroes to take him out. Heroes with AoE attacks will be valuable to take out adds, such as Black Widow or Iron Man. Use the same tactics you would use against Yellow Jacket in BW and if possible hug into a corner so you don't have to worry about trains moving around the map.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It's still too early to say if VS is too hard or too easy. F2P users will definitely feel frustrated (especially if they don't have Loki). Casual users will find it challenging and will reinforce maxing out key characters first, rather than trying amass an army. Whales will probably just laugh it off as usual and complain the lack of content in a few days.

For me, I fall into the casual range and I respect the difficulty the DEVs brought. It's definitely something you can work towards and solidifying new strategies as time passes on. Feel free to share your strategies in the comments below!

As usual, IGN: PolishTamales and you can reach me on Twitter @polishtamales or follow me on Tumblr at /polishtamales or Facebook /polish.tamales