10.6 Update Recap - Wastelanders

Introduction

The last update of 2024 ends it with a wet shart as the streak of horrid update themes continues. After Symbiote update #2034984 we have been treated with the much anticipated "Old Man Logan Without Wolverine" update starring geezer Hawkeye and Bullseye. And Gambit is also in the key art. Because he throws things and uses cards like Bullseye? We are all "Wastelanders" if you think of updates 9.0 through 9.6 as the wasteland and us poor agents as its strongest survivors. Please someone help me!!!

This update also had a bit more going for it as it introduced the Christmas seasonal uniforms (meh) and the much anticipated Marvel Rivals collab (one off-meta PvP uniform).

• Characters

  Characters

  The Wastelanders

  Gambit [X-Men Year-End Party]

  Gambit [X-Men Year-End Party]

  Gambit is far and away the best PvE character of this update, and would be a clear leap in ABX/L ceiling if Strange hadn't come out a couple updates prior. He scores 12m and higher with ease in the Blast Hero Mutant ABL day, but the flipside is that is the only ABX/L day he is meta for, and it's already covered by Psylocke's [Summer Vacation] uniform. While Gambit scores more than Psylocke, many players would already have her, and Psylocke has the added benefit of also covering the Hero Mutant Female day. Gambit is also eligible for Blast Male ABX (his only other ABX/L day), but no one is topping Strange in that category for a long time.

  For WBL, he is not as dominant as he is for ABX/L, but with a proper build (e.g. proc C.T.P.) he puts up decent numbers. This does require you to spec away from ABX/L but it's an option to get some use out of him if you already have his day covered.

  Overall he is a good choice if you do not already have Summer Psylocke and/or Cable scoring 12m, but he's a pure luxury pick if you already do.

  Bullseye [Wastelanders]

  Bullseye [Wastelanders]

  Not too much to be said about this uniform - he's the new Speed Villain ABX meta, taking over from Gwenpool. However Gwenpool has a lot more going on for her, providing native Pierce for newer accounts, covering all Luna's ABL days for people missing that uniform, and being a Tier-3 simply makes for better gameplay.

  He gets his spot in the first section just because he's actually meta for something (and being PvE is an added bonus), but most players are not going to touch him and be just fine without. T4ing someone for a single ABX day is a bit goofy to begin with, couple that with an existing and more versatile character already being able to score 13m or even 15m consistently and you have one of the easiest "metas" to skip.

  The Recyclables

  Captain America (Sharon Rogers) [Arctic Warrior]

  Captain America (Sharon Rogers) [Arctic Warrior]

  The Rog finally finds herself free of the Malaysian menace's foul designs in what has to be one of the most visually stunning uniforms ever. The high-tech vibes from the earlier uniforms and wintery visuals strike a great balance between the familiarity of her iconic playstyle and refreshed animations - the ice sculpture 5th skill and v-pad 4th skill with the mecha wings are simply too clean.

  Visuals aside though, the main knock against this uniform objectively is its performance. By all accounts it is just not enough of an improvement over [Posiedon Armor] - even if it were a non-seasonal Crystal uniform, it would probably be seen as not worth buying if you already own Poseidon.

  To make matters worse, it is not a non-seasonal Crystal uniform but rather a seasonal paywall one. Costing 20-30 USD (depending on whether you use the free 10) for a minor upgrade is a tough sell, to the point where Poseidon still seems like a better deal. Maybe the intention was to allow Sharon to still be viable with the previous uniform, keeping her F2P friendly, but this approach feels like the worst of both worlds and they simply should not have paywalled her.

  Overall it's a beautiful uniform that is probably not worth it unless you're a huge fan. Or bought tokens then realised all the Christmas paywall unis are mid. Which they are.

  Magik [Marvel Rivals]

  Magik [Marvel Rivals]

  A fair few people seemed hopeful that this uniform would be the F2P-ish option for Mutant days in ABL, which is pretty dire considering she's Premium and you'd have to hope for Dimension Mission drops to actually unlock her. It would have been preferable over the current paywall options though, sadly it was never going to happen because she was given a PvP artifact a couple of years ago.

  Starting with positives, the character model in both regular and demon form is excellent. Along with Spider-Gwen, Magik proves that MFF's graphics are more than sufficient if they leaned properly into an art style instead of the generic human faces that plague most unmasked characters. The demon gimmick itself is interesting too, though its implementation is a bit questionable.

  Performance wise there is some potential in PvP, which she is clearly intended for, though as with basically every Native Tier-1 PvP character she is not Timeline worthy. This limits her to the autoplay modes like Otherworld and Alliance Conquest. The only issue with this is that she is currently bugged and tends to stand motionless after entering demon mode, so it is very difficult to tell how effective she actually is.

  As for PvE, she's not the ABL character many wanted, scoring multiple millions less than the meta options even with a stacked build. Her demon gimmick is also very annoying to keep track of in PvE, often requiring you to waste time waiting for a boss to attack. It would have been much nicer overall to have a system like Mephisto's where switching is much easier and there are benefits to each form. Sadly they hate the players.

  Star-Lord [Wastelanders]

  Star-Lord [Wastelanders]

  These recaps have in the past mentioned that additional uniforms for existing Tier-4 characters is never a bad thing. This did not age well as these mid-month uniforms for Star-Lord and Gamora are as ugly as they are unnecessary. Both characters' GOTG3 uniforms are still decent enough, and with popular Guardians characters like Rocket and Groot still rotting away as Lv.70s there was absolutely no need for the double up. No sensible Star-Lord or Gamora fan would have had any qualms waiting another year or so for their previous uniforms to actually become dated before being replaced, and let other Guardians take the spotlight (e.g. Drax who has literally never been remotely good).

  As for the uniform itself, it's not too bad with some interesting animations and a decent boost to damage. It isn't enough for him to overtake Gladiator as ABL meta, but it is feasible to hit 12m with a stacked build - costing less mats/Crystals to Tier-4, but more upgrade materials to start hitting high scores.

  He is also strong in WBL with a proc C.T.P. - though not perfectly proc-friendly on his Tier-3 rotation, so he may miss a few procs even if you cancel really fast. Some very minor changes like an instant cancel on skill 3 would have made this a much easier rotation, with a weird uniform choice like this the least they could have done is not decrease his proc-friendliness.

  Gamora [Wastelanders]

  Gamora [Wastelanders]

  Much the same story as Star-Lord. This has a very similar rotation and animations to Gamora's GOTG3 uniform, providing a decent boost in damage. As with her previous uniform, it makes her a strong candidate for ABX/L, however not quite good enough to overtake Luna, and lacking the versatility of Gwenpool (whose Human status allows her to enter more days).

  It is nice to have a couple of PvE-oriented uniforms, but from both a character selection and visual perspective, these ones are simply very unexciting.

  The Wastes

  Hawkeye [Wastelanders]

  Hawkeye [Wastelanders]

  Hawkeye being in line to get a Tier-4 was as unsurprising as him being the last of the original 6 MCU Avengers to get one. Ideally this would have happened after Netmarble addressed Speed Male Human Heroes being utterly useless but we can't have it all.

  Unsurprisingly Hawkeye is a mediocre PvP character that ironically hasn't left much of a mark. His skills are quite nice compared to his other uniforms, but a character like Hawkeye is just begging for a more unique mechanic or rotation to drive the accuracy part home. A generic rotation just does not hold a candle to more flashy characters like Gambit and Sharon in the same update.

  His PvE value is not worth noting: even if he was cracked there is just nowhere to use him. It would have been nice for him to be a new Miles equivalent, especially as his previous Disney+ show uniform was WBL oriented, but Netmarble is leaning hard into OWB with these non-ABX/L uniforms so it's not a shocker.

  Nothing quite like a pair of actual Nazis to drive this horrendous update home. Zemo has a decent leadership so there may be some minor utility when Transcended, but it's not that great unless you need the Ignore Dodge aspect. Especially since he is paywalled and there are a ton of other Speed Villains with good leads/supports.

• Dispatch Sector 14

  Dispatch Sector 14

  A much-awaited new Dispatch sector was added this update, dropping Carbonadium as a passive reward. Hard to complain about more T4 mats, though Carbonadium isn't the limiting resource for a lot of people. Hopefully a Sector 15 that drops Souls of the Faltine isn't as far away as the gap between Sectors 13 and 14.

  Dispatch continues to be a very nice gamemode, encouraging trying out multiple teams for faster clearing and ticking off the 3 challenges in each sector. The Inhumans challenges this time around might suggest Medusa's new uniform and Tier-4 are imminent.