$(MSDeployPath) seems missing

[ir2000]

at least on my machine I needed to add $(MSDeployPath) manually

[sayedihashimi]

That shouldn't be required. Have you tried from another machine?

[ir2000]

Verified on another machine (Win7 / VS2012, same setup as mine) <Message Text="MSDeployPath: $(MSDeployPath)" Importance="high"/> shows "7>MSDeployPath: " in the output window.
Another thing I found was that using a saved password doesn't work either, the $(Password) would be empty. I needed to add the password in plain text either in the wpp.targets or the .pubxml <Password>1234</Password>

[sayedihashimi]

Is there anything funny about your machine setup? Did you install MSDeploy normally or are you trying to use an xcopy version of msdeploy.exe? If its a vanilla install then this shouldn't be required.

[ir2000]

Nothing funny, installers from microsoft.com installed with next, next, next... Only difference to your system might be german language.

[jlee1201]

I can also verify that MSDeployPath is empty on mine, and also that Password is empty (I also have to manually type password in plain text).

Using Win 8 / VS2013 Update 4

[jlee1201]

verified that ir2000's patch fixed MSDeployPath issue