I just finished Spec Ops 12 yesterday, and the same day PD releases Squirrel Girl to be purchased after a set of Covert Tasks. Being this the third week with a new release in a row, playdom is listening to my prayers. And since I enjoyed my first two blog posts, I'll give it another try; this was a small patch, so this will be a small post.
Today's topic: Squirrel Girl.
Patch Note []
First off, let us discuss this: Rescue was nerfed, again, this time rendering her useless, or just less annoying since you can trust the stuns again now, maybe Emma will regain some popularity because of this, you can get rid of stuns with her, and since we're on this topic, Iron Fist's L9's Tenacious wasn't fixed.... shame on you Playdom. 1 month later and still no fix. Shame.
Rest of the Patch note is about Squirrel Girl, really, and that's the next subject.
Squirrel Girl []
Looks like a fun character to play, not overpowered, not weak, looks balanced to me with a good skillset that can build up some strategy (Imagine her with 3x stacks of Acorn Power + 5x stacks of Nutty), and I like the fact that her passive isn't just Squirrelly, but Super Squirrelly.
Self Passive: Super Squirrely[]
- High chance to Avoid Melee attacks
- Grants Acorn Power when an attack is avoided this way
- Immune to Targeting effects
Cool passive, very useful, totally useful against bruisers, and being immune to targeting effects just makes it perfect, also grants Acorn Power which is listed in the patch note inside her skills, same as Nutty, so I'll just list her self buffs next:
Self Buff: Acorn Power[]
- Increases Attack
- Chance per stack to counter when any ally is attacked
- Stacks up to 3 times.
- Granted by dodging attacks with Supper Squirrely or full 3 stacks with her L2
- Consumed by her L6 for Nutty Stacks.
Self Buff: Nutty[]
- 20% per stack to gain an Extra Turn after attacking
- Stacks up to 5 times
- Granted by her L6 consuming Acorn Power
- Consumed by her L9 for extra damage.
Now for the actual skills, here are my thoughts:
L1: Squirrel Strike[]
- I'm not a fan of the Pain Train on her L1 since I'm not a fan of the build up type skills since you have to spam it every turn, and hope it doesn't get debuffed or you'll lose all your progress, however this is a L1 on a scrapper, making it able to spam it twice per round. Also, if you team her up with someone who can apply Pain, Exposed or Wide-Open, you'll get better results, being able to exploit this skill. It also applies Exhausted every time.
L2: Furry Fury[]
- Her L2 is cool, I love everything that comes with Flanked, and I love to get rid of tanks, so I just can't help to love this skill, it also gives you 3x Acorn Power to build up her L6 (sadly they're easily removable). Comes with a 2 rounds cooldown so you don't get to spam it and get infinite stacks of Acorn Power. Making her less nerf material, well thinked.
L6: Nuts to This[]
- This one heals, AND it restores stamina instead of using it. It also gets you Nutty which you can stack up to 5 times, and lasts 3 rounds, making it easier to stack. This is also a Quick Action without cooldown, so you can spam it as long as you have stacks of Acorn Power, with a 25% chance to fail, to make the skill less nerf material, well thinked, again.
L9: Wrath of the Raging Squirrel[]
- Finally, her L9 is a Stealthy Brutal Strike with Deadly Crits, nice base damage (with the chance to apply more damage with the Nut Up or Shut Up consuming Nutty Stacks), and a funny name.
- Jesus, 20 hits. That's some wrath indeed.
Covert Tasks []
Second Covert Task in the game, this time Bright Eyed, Bushy Tailed is like a mini Spec Ops, specially since this time the reward is a Hero... well, the availability "ability" to buy a hero:
And that is bugging me a little, since this is a limited time event, does that means Squirrel Girl won't be released for purchase after the 19 days are of the tasks are passed? Even more with the fact that on day one, some people (including me) weren't able to play for her, though it was all fixed overnight.
http://i.imgur.com/djJFhH7.png
(Last night)
http://i.imgur.com/AhYiafR.png
(This morning)
If she would still be able to purchase, it'd have been cooler that you have 19 days to get her before everyone else if you do the tasks, and/or even at half price, then she's 100% released without prior tasks to purchase her, and at full price. But well, I'm not playdom.
Anyways, I'm done with the tasks, the speed bumps on them are Task 4 (making you play more) and Task 8 (making you wait and taking a break from playing), it's well done, and I must say, I really enjoyed them, and this is a cool way to release new heroes, you get to know them a bit more, a little bit of story, plus, the rewards for the tasks are good as well, and some fun something to do not just waste 90 cp, don't play just consume resources. I wouldn't be mad if they do this again, but maybe it'd be better if they do something extra like a discount or something.
Task Progression[]
1. 
Change of Subject (Defeat 5 Test Subjects in Season 2): They can be found in Missions 1, 2 and 4, so I'll go to Mission 1, since task 3 requires me to defeat Sugar Man. A low and a medium did the trick.
- Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
2. 
Another Earth (Survive an Incursion): Incursion popped after those two fights, perfect. I'll give it a try to the God of War in PvP. He's just L2, but I did the previous fights with him and Omega and had fun.
- Reward: 3000
3. 
Splice of Life (Defeat Sugar Man): See? Progress is at 52% and since this isn't spec ops and score nor resources don't really matter, I'll go for the mini boss for quicker progress. Perfect, Sugar man is up... aaand it's gone.
- Reward: 1
4. 
Oakey Dokey (Collect 15 Acorns): Acorns are dropped in combat by enemies in Season 2, I got mine while farming CPs to reach 90 and be able to buy Squirrel Girl when I'm done with the tasks. They can also be purchased in the store, of course, at 2g the piece, not going to happen for me. This was most certainly a hold back, this and the research tasks are the speed bumps of the whole 10 tasks, so I'll reach #8 today before going to bed, and wake up to finish 9 and 10.
I did a section at the end of the post about farming Acorns.
- Reward: 5000
5. 
Prove Yourself (Win 3 PVP Battles): "Squirrel Girl wants to see how well you fight", lol'd... but time to do my 5 dailies. I'm sad to announce that 4/5 of the battles had Rescue on it, despite 2nd nerf. Oddly enough, no Phoenixs. And I got my 4th Reboot in the Roulette, and 3rd Scepter in the boxes, and no 8th cover but 8th duplicate. :(
- Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
6. 
Hellfire And Blood (Defeat 15 Hellfire Club Soldiers in Season 2): Hellfire Club Soldiers can be found in Missions 2, 3 and 5. Since next task requires Dragoness, let's work on Mission 3. I had to do 5 fights for this, which is ok, since I have to reach the boss anyways.
- Reward: 7000
http://i.imgur.com/cxph07A.png
http://i.imgur.com/2bq6N2w.png
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/3086/5eqq.png
http://i.imgur.com/mPOeAwZ.png
http://i.imgur.com/4NcE6ib.png
7. 
Dragon's Lair (Defeat Dragoness in Season 2): Dragoness is the Boss of Mission 3: Sword in the Stone. <--- Yes we know. After the 5 fights in last task I ended up with 75%. After that I did the Heroic since the one in this map is an easy / fun / quick one, and I wouldn't be mad to get a fresh pair of Sonic Fist or some CPs for 10 energy, no progress with Heroics, but still, worth the run, it popped a Medium and that one popped Dragoness. :)
- Reward: 1
I totally missed the dialogs after this, since I spam-clicked ok as it was after the boss dialog, and realized too late it was SG talking, so I'll just leave an image in this one:
http://i.imgur.com/Mxc3VcM.jpg
(Click here for bigger image)
8. 
Chitter Chitter (Research the Squirrely-Talkie in the Lab): Research the Squirrely-Talkie to complete this task (cost 100 Silver and takes 8 hours to finish). Now, let's wait 8 hours / sleep. (00:00 in here)
- Reward: 9000
http://i.imgur.com/49GeRL8.png
(Last night)
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/6510/drie.png
(Today)
http://i.imgur.com/p1sN641.png
http://i.imgur.com/lCUdZwJ.png
(I love Tony's dialogs xD)
9. 
Deep South (Complete the Rogue and Gambit Heroic Battle in Season 2 Mission 1): Piece of cake, go to mission 1 in season 2 and do a couple of fights and a deploy to pop this. If you're having problems with the fight, do this: focus in 1 target, unless Gambit counters or assists with his L2, switch to that target since it'll have Exposed and be easier to bring down; Gambit does L1 always until he has 3-4 Kinetic Charges, then he can finish the first target with L6, or do massive damage to the 2nd target; Rogue goes L9, then next round has two turns, do L2 for Ubiquitous Power -> L6 to restore some heal / stamina and moar damage, if there are still more turns, L9 again then L6->L1 and it should be over by then, really.
- Reward: 5
10. 
The Fix Is In (Defeat Fixer in Season 2): Fixer is the Boss of Mission 6: To Catch a Thief. Let's do it!
BTW I'm just aborting missions if I have to move to the next because of new task, I really don't care about farming CPs right now, but more on time, but you can finish your business ofc, it's up to everyone needs and resources.
In here just rampage to the boss, go every high fight you see, mini bosses one by one (unless you're planning for an epic), take everything that's in your way, then take Fixer down and that's it.
- Reward: 5
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5416/r5fy.png
(I love the reward on this one)
Aaaand I'm done:
This was fun as well. Thanks for tagging along! See you on next update.
PS: I forgot to mention, there wasn't a limited time to buy her, so I figure IF you're done with the tasks you'll be able to recruit her whenever you can, totally fair.
Farming Acorns[]
I believe this is an old one, but it may still to work, the drops are from critical hits, so you have to maximize the amount of hits you dish every fight, so here are some tips:
- Don't one shot everything. The longer the fight, the more chance to get some drops.
- Get heroes or weapons with high number of hits on their attacks.
- Farming is retroactive, meaning every Acorn you got before reaching Task #4, it'll count towards completition of the same.
- Sometimes the Acorns drop but the count doesn't get updated, if that happens, refresh the game and you'll see them.
- You may have more than one object dropping per battle, but none will ever drop twice (or more) in a battle, this also applies for the Acorns.
- DON'T WANT IT, just farm something else, CPs, weapons, or complete the tasks for Heroic Age Iron Fist if you haven't yet. It'll be easier.
- Be patient, there are over 2 weeks to finish this, I'm quite sure you'll get more than that by the time this is over.
- Remember, Season 2 missions only.
- Here's an useful blog post from MGeffro about drop rates for Acorns, good stuff.
| Hero / Weapon | Best Case Scenario Number of Hits | Details |
|---|---|---|
| War Machine | 126 hits | L6 AoE = 7 hits each, times 3 now picture this: You have 3x Charged Capacitors, a Tactician WM and got hit by a Blaster, you fire his L6 for the first 63 hits, if everybody survives, then on the 2nd turn because tactician, you use his L9 then L6 again for another 63 hits, that's 126 hits if there are three enemies and they survive ALL the rounds. Clearly, undisputed, first place in the table. |
| Emma Frost | 48 hits | L9 AoE = 8 hits each, that's 24 hits if there are three enemies, go Tactician so if you get hit by a Blaster you can spam her L9 again for another 24 hits for a grand total of 48 hits, and the 2nd place on the list. |
| Quicksilver | 36 hits + counters | L2 AoE = 4 hits each, sum other 6 hits if you're scrapper and start with the L1 on an infiltrator, that's 18 hits if there's an inf around and three enemies, he goes twice per round, scoring him a 3nd place on this table with a possible scenario of 36 hits, plus possible counters with his L2 |
| The Obliterator | 32 hits | AoE = 6 hits each, that's 18 hits if there are three enemies, can perform a guaranteed follow-up if you have Power Cell Mk II or III for a total of 32 hits, 4th place in the table, but first place for a weapon. |
| Deadpool | 27 hits | L2 = 25 hits, if you go against an infiltrator sum 2 hits from his L1, that's 27 hits if there's an inf around... 5th place, I almost made Omega better than this. I tried, I seriously did. |
| Omega Sentinel | 26 hits | L6 on Scrapper or L1 on Bruiser AoE = 4 hits each, she can go twice per round that's 24 hits if there are three enemies and they all survive. Now, this is a little bit too farfetched, but I could say if there's a Blaster and an Infiltrator too and you switch to Tactician after the first 12 hits from her L6 on Scrapper, take advantage of CQC for the extra two hits, take advantage of the extra turn from Tactician, and go back to either Scrapper or Bruiser to finish it up with another 12 hits for a total of 26 hits. (or you can just press her L6 twice for 24 hits without any hassle) |
| Wasp | 24 hits + two possible counters | L6 AoE = 8 hits each, that's 24 hits if there are three enemies, she can counter as an infiltrator and/or with her passive |
| Cable | 24 hits or 12 hits + anything else in this table | L2 AoE in T-O Control = 4 hits each, that's 12 hits if there are three enemies, and his L9 can grant an extra turn to anyone, say himself... or War Machine |
| Ares | 21 hits + coordinated attacks / cooperative deffenses | L6 quick action = 3 hits + L2 AoE = 6 hits each, that's 18 hits if there are three enemies, his God of War Passive can proc at any time granting extra attacks / hits from allies |
| Storm | 21 hits | L9 AoE = 6 hits each, that's 18 hits if there are three enemies, go Tactician so if you get hit by a Blaster you can use her L6 for another 3 hits and a total of 21 hits. (sadly her L9 has 4 rounds of cooldown, if not, she'd be 4rth in the list) |
| Maggia "Triggerman" | 12 hits + counters / follow ups | AoE = 4 hits each, has a chance to counter / follow up, that's 12 hits every time if there are three enemies (wish I had this one), this one would be the first weapon even above The Obliterator, if the Counters / Follow ups were 100% secure somehow. However, I know there is a pretty high chance to get them, so obviously 2nd spot for a weapon, nearly close to first spot. |
| Quick-Load_T'Cha | 12 hits + follow up | AoE = 4 hits each, has a chance to follow up, that's 12 hits every time if there are three enemies |
| Scarlet Witch | 12 hits | L1 AoE = 4 hits each, that's 12 hits if there are three enemies |
| Gambit | 12 hits | L9 AoE = 4 hits each, that's 12 hits if there are three enemies |
| Restored Lewis Automatic Machine Gun | 12 hits | AoE = 4 hits each, that's 12 hits if there are three enemies |
| Batstone 2.357 Minigun / Golden 2.357 Minigun / Model 7 | 12 hits | AoE = 4 hits each, that's 12 hits if there are three enemies |
| The Perforator / Custom Perforator | 12 hits | AoE = 4 hits each, that's 12 hits if there are three enemies |
| Stark Industries Isotope Cannon | 12 hits | AoE = '4 hits each, that's 12 hits if there are three enemies |
If you find this useful, or got any other idea, please let me know.