Marvel Heroes: Deadpool Guide

Deadpool Classic Costume

NOTE: Credit to this guide goes to user "Narfwak" from the forums

Ranged Basic Powers

Max all three ranged basic powers every chance you get. If you choose to level up with a purely ranged build you well have a pretty un-fun time until at least level 10 if not later. Deadpool's first ranged basic Bang Bang does very bad damage and the points invested are more for synergy boost than real effectiveness.

Armor Buster

Armor Buster is where you start to get a genuinely useful ranged basic: the defense debuff makes each followup shot deal more damage, and the fast attack speed means that it stacks very quickly. Also, as a debuff, it's useful for other physical damage party members - let it never be said that Deadpool isn't a team player! I have a few +skill from gear for this skill at my current level/build, and in my experience it seems to be the best single-target DPS skill I have available and I use it as my main boss-killing move.

Bang Boom

Bang Boom is where life starts to get very fun. The attack is slower but the damage is larger and packs a decent sized AoE on impact. The radius combined with the high projectile speed makes it a very easy AoE skill to use (and spam) and is extremely handy. Having a spammable, free AoE that you can use any time you want is useful for blowing up the environment, slaying packs of minions, etc., although for raw AoE damage you won't use it as much once you get the big guns (more on that in a moment). I see lots of people using this as their main single target basic choice, but I would advise against that; the faster fire rate of Armor Buster appears to equate to higher DPS unless you have a significant skill point boost in Bang Boom. Additionally, since they both do physical damage, you're going to want to debuff the targets armor first with Armor Buster for maximum effect.

Shoot all the Bullets

And now for the best skill in your arsenal: Shoot ALL The Bullets! This skill is mechanically identical to Punisher's Unload skill, but seems to get better scaling and ease of use in general. At almost every point after you get it the large cone, high DPS, relatively low cost (by the time you get it your spirit pool should be at least 150-175 if not higher) and great range combine to make this your ultimate room clearer. Forget trying to set up elaborate bomb traps or corral everyone into tight spaces, as now you just need to get some dudes in front of you and hold down the trigger until everything is dead. In very large groups where basic attacks appear to do almost no damage this may also end up being used for single target damage, but I must confess I don't really understand how that mechanic and the "basic attack defense ignore" affix work yet. For added fun use this skill for blow up crates and environment objects by activating the skill and then quickly whipping around in a circle. Given how much money and crafting junk you can find this way having a channeled power that hits instantly over a large area ends up being awfully handy.

Stop Drop and Roll

I put one point in Stop Drop and Roll for the obvious utility, but it's the only point I have in the 'Fighty' tree. As I continue to level up my character I may choose to drop this entirely as the cheaper cost relative to teleporting starts to no longer be true as you invest more points in Bodyslide By One and find gear with -cost% to 'Tricky' powers. It does do a one-second stun that can be used (albeit with some difficulty) as an attack interrupt, so there's also that. Anyway, definitely grab this one as soon as you can and you'll probably want to hang on to it for a while even at level thirty and beyond.

Healing Passive

I have a few points in the healing passive, but it doesn't appear to scale well and I wouldn't recommend dumping a lot in there (I believe I have at most six or seven; can't log in yet so I'm not sure). I have one point in the bouncy grenade, which is only to unlock Li'l Deadpool as by itself the grenade is more annoying than it is useful. At first I heavily invested in Li'l Deadpool, but the delay makes it not very useful as an effective attack especially once you have access to Shoot ALL The Bullets. Now, it exists purely as a "LEAVE ME ALONE!" utility power, and it is still very useful in that respect. During the beta I combined this with two of the Shi'ar Cloaking Device artifacts which gives a very large passive damage boost against enemies not targeting you. With two such relics I could get a MASSIVE damage boost while soling simply by tossing a bomb doll every five seconds or so, and in parties it's still a handy tool as your teammates can't tank everything for you. I wouldn't be surprised if the item gets removed or nerfed, though, as I haven't seen it drop yet in live and it is very broken and exploitable.

Get Better Faster

Get Better Faster might be worth putting points into especially in PvP, but right now I only have one point in it to unlock all the juicy goodness that comes after it. God Mod makes skill activation free, so one use for this skill is to quickly blast back up to full HP after 'dying' as the activation speed is all but instantaneous. Power Ups is a fairly reliable tool for self healing and also allows you to heal and buff teammates, so I tend to think of this skill as somewhat redundant. Still, it's not a complete waste, and you can choose to pick it up if you want.

Power Ups

Powers Ups is a truly godly power that, while scaling slowly, does get MUCH better over time as you can throw more and maintain more power-ups at a time. The green Hulk dolls increase damage and double defense, and the teddy bear dolls are a powerful medkit-style heal that also stacks with itself. It's a fantastic solo power, giving you a massive and reliable buff as well as a powerful heal. Where it truly shines, however, is in its ability to heal and buff allies. I'm not too well versed in all the powers that everyone has, but in my experience playing I haven't seen any other hero with an active ability that let them heal their allies. In other words - remember when I said you should never let anyone tell you Deadpool isn't a team player? That's because Deadpool is the team player. It's easily one of the most powerful support powers in the entire game, and combined with his other utilities and the ability to freakin' teleport it makes Deadpool and invaluable ally.

God Mode

God Mode is hilariously overpowered and awesome. Basically, if you 'die' while this skill is available you will become invulnerable for 8 seconds + 1 second for any skill point beyond the first, and while invulnerable all skills cost zero spirit. Eight seconds isn't an eternity, but as you continue to buff this skill (or combine it with things that increase power duration) it can start to feel like an eternity. You'll even find yourself intentionally 'killing' yourself just for the infinite spirit perk. It's a priceless skill, you want it, and you want to dump as many points as you can into it. Just don't forget to heal yourself before the sugar rush ends or you'll suddenly die for realsies.

Speaking of which: you will die several times after getting God Mode and think that it is bugged; it is not. Understanding why requires an explanation of the pain system. The catch is that God Mode requires you to spend one pain point in order to activate. "But wait," you say, "if I just died I should be drowning in pain! Death is very painful!" Well, one would think so, but we all know Wade's nervous system is a bit, shall we say, eccentric and tends to interpret the concept of "pain" differently than you might expect. In gameplay terms what this means is that you are awarded pain when you are hit. Think about that for a second. It's not "how much damage you take," it's "when you are hit." That means big, bursty damage that one-shots you doesn't give you enough pain to unlock a pain point, but low-damage, rapid-fire hits will spike your pain faster than you can possibly use it. Certain mechanics, like energy barrier fire walls or other DoT sources can be exploited for a quick surge of pain if you need it. Boss that do only slow, high-damage attacks should be treated with some caution.

Bodyslide by One

Bodyslide By One. Where to even start with this one... it's the biggest game changer in Deadpool's entire arsenal. If you've played Diablo or Diablo II, you're probably familar with the Wizard/Sorceress teleport power, and, well, this is basically that power. It's spammable, it's long range, it goes through walls (sometimes stuck in them, but hey, no one's perfect) - what's not to love? When you first get it the spirit cost is fairly high, but every point invest lowers that cost and at higher levels it's not uncommon to find gear with -spirit% for all powers or a specific skill tree. With this baby you can instantly reposition in a battle to get a better firing angle or dodge an attack, warp across huge distances of open ground to simply save time, scout out areas, warp directly to bosses... it's undeniably the most useful skill you could possibly ask for. As an added bonus you can even get a free cast out of it if you have the whopping three pain points needed. You probably won't take advantage of this unless you're zooming around at area with lots of rapid-fire ranged mobs, but if you are it'll come in handy more than you'd expect.

Server Lag Ultimate

Lastly, we have Deadpool's ultimate spell - Server Lag. It's not quite as amazing as some of his actual core abilities, but it's still a very powerful trick. Pop it in a group of enemies, and everything on-screen is stunned by high ping and forced to walk in place for 15 seconds. It would be much better if it didn't have the 20 minute cooldown common to all ultimates, but it's still handy for fights like MODOK or the group survival challenges that can see you drowning in adds. It also doesn't work on bosses as the tooltip suggests, so don't bother to use it unless you're really surrounded in bad dudes and need to time to mow them all down with many, many bullets.

Summary

So, in summary: max all your basics, max your channeled attack, get one point in the roll, grenade, bomb doll, and activated heal, and dump as much as you can into power ups, god mode and bodyslide. Eventually you're probably going to run out of spare points and having to prioritize, in which case core 'Hurty' ranged attacks take obvious precedence.

NOTE: Credit to this guide goes to user "Narfwak" from the forums