**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
7.2 Exploration Guide
Zahid
Posts: 49 ★
Hey everyone. I recently finished exploring the new chapter of act 7 and thought I’d share some of my tips and thoughts for the paths while it’s still fresh for me. I know I explored it incredibly quickly so that should give you an idea of how fun this content is (and also how much free time I’ve had the past few days hahaha).
I’m not going to go too much in detail on individual fights since there’s way too many fights to cover but I’ll list some champs which worked particularly well for me personally. For reference, I did the entire exploration with suicides on so if you’re a permanent suicides user, you don’t need to worry too much about changing up your masteries. There’s definitely some fights where it’d help to have suicides off but it wasn’t worth the swap for me since most paths were itemless, besides energy refills.
The champs that I’ll be listing are the champs that I personally used and that is a very small handful of the champs which can work. 7.2 gives you a ton of freedom of who you can use which is one of the things I loved about it. I’m glad to say I didn’t use Quake for a single fight in 7.2 at all which is a nice change from pre nerf act 6 exploration where I had to use her in the majority of the paths. Feel free to share below what champs you personally used for some of the paths and bosses!
7.2.1
1. Bullet Time, Ebb and Flow Knockdown, Bleed Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Nick Fury, Ghost, Archangel, Magneto
Thoughts on the path: So this node bullet time was on a recent cavalier event quest boss (or maybe it’s the current one?) so I was already somewhat familiar with it. I found parrying and building up to roughly 15-20 charges and then dexing gives a super long stun where you’ll be able to take most opponents down; just remember to knock them down first to remove the protection. Half the path is metal making Magneto pretty solid, and he usually will turn the protection node off making the fights go by quickly. Symbiote Supreme on the path caused the most problems since if you use the bullet time node, you’ll have to dex and gain a precision which will usually get nullified by him. If I did that fight again, I’d probably bring a nullify immune champ like Thing or Crossbones with synergy.
2. Superiority: Paragon (#Hero), Rise Above, Flail, Clapback, Ebb and Flow – Heavy
Champs that worked well: Claire, Magneto, Human Torch, Angela
Thoughts on the path: This was a pretty straightforward path which Human Torch makes light work of. Clapback places any debuff you place on the opponent onto you as well, so you can build to super high smoulders pretty easily. Claire works similarly with being able to cycle your specials quickly.
3. Juggling Act – Cold Snap/Incinerate, Energy Adoption: Ice and Fire, Blood in the Water, Stun Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Magneto (vs Stryfe), Angela
Thoughts on the path: Any time I saw energy adoption my mind would jump straight to Ghost since she ends the fights insanely quickly. So if you have a Ghost, then you’ll have a fun time on this path. The fights I didn’t use Ghost for on the path were Professor X (I used max sig Angela) and Stryfe. I realized the incinerate and coldsnap from the nodes are actually pretty negligible and if you have willpower on, you can pretty much use anyone.
4. Intervention: Fury, Tyranny, Power Shield
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Doom, Ghost
Thoughts on the path: Only villains can gain power so you wanna use villain champs since there’s a power shield node too. Ghost as usual dominates this, most fights are over after one sp2 (from a rank 3 6*, I imagine a rank 5 5* would be similar). There’s a few metal champs on this path which I used Magneto for, one sp2 and you’re hitting more than 400-500k and they’re down.
5. Superiority: Paragon (#Hero), Superconductor, Static Blast, Flare
Champs that worked well: Warlock, Colossus, Angela
Thoughts on the path: This path had this node superconductor which gives your attackers resistance to power burn, drain and steal with an armour up which pretty much counters the static blast node. You get extra resistance potency if you use #Hero champs. There’s a Domino and Havok on the path so I went for Warlock here. You can basically use anyone on the path thanks to flare, but try and only use champs with class advantage and the degen won’t kill you even after the full duration.
6. Counter Tactics, Release Valve, Foresight, Unblockable Specials
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Wasp, Nick, Angela
Thoughts on the path: Release valve nicely counters counter tactic so you don’t need to really worry about it. Foresight is one of the nodes which rewards a big passive fury when you intercept so naturally Ghost dominated it as usual. There is a Killmonger and Ebony Maw on the path so I’d recommend keeping them in mind when choosing your team. Specials are unblockable which isn’t a problem since most champs on the path have easy specials to dex, but be careful about pushing Elsa and Ebony Maw to their sp2s.
Bosses
Magneto (Moth to the Flame, Power Buildup, Spite, Aggressive, Unblockable Specials) x1
Champs that worked well: Human Torch
Strategy for the boss: Nova flames on and make sure to keep Fervor charges up by keeping the distance closed between you and him. Avoid dexing when possible and bait sp1 as much as you can.
Modok (Stampede, Defective Defense, Spectre of Ailment, Aggressive, Shock Immunity) x4
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Nick
Strategy for the boss: easy oneshot every time with Magneto playing the normal way, build your prowess up and let off a big sp3 and let the bleed tick him down. I used Nick on one of the runs too who works well. You can pretty much ignore stampede since you won’t be parrying much cause of defective defense, so I reckon any champ who can ignore autoblock would work well.
Moleman (Fight or Flight, Bleed Vulnerability, Foresight, Incinerate Immunity, No Hit-M…ercy 3) x1
Champs that worked well: Nick
Strategy for the boss: Bleed vulnerability is a node that calls for Nick, easy fight with him. First bit of the fight is a little slow since he’ll be shrugging off your debuffs but once he’s in frenzy, it becomes straightforward. End your combos on a light and you’re good to go. I’d recommend going into the second life of Nick and getting unblockable so you don’t have to worry about hitting his block and him going unstoppable.
I’m not going to go too much in detail on individual fights since there’s way too many fights to cover but I’ll list some champs which worked particularly well for me personally. For reference, I did the entire exploration with suicides on so if you’re a permanent suicides user, you don’t need to worry too much about changing up your masteries. There’s definitely some fights where it’d help to have suicides off but it wasn’t worth the swap for me since most paths were itemless, besides energy refills.
The champs that I’ll be listing are the champs that I personally used and that is a very small handful of the champs which can work. 7.2 gives you a ton of freedom of who you can use which is one of the things I loved about it. I’m glad to say I didn’t use Quake for a single fight in 7.2 at all which is a nice change from pre nerf act 6 exploration where I had to use her in the majority of the paths. Feel free to share below what champs you personally used for some of the paths and bosses!
7.2.1
1. Bullet Time, Ebb and Flow Knockdown, Bleed Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Nick Fury, Ghost, Archangel, Magneto
Thoughts on the path: So this node bullet time was on a recent cavalier event quest boss (or maybe it’s the current one?) so I was already somewhat familiar with it. I found parrying and building up to roughly 15-20 charges and then dexing gives a super long stun where you’ll be able to take most opponents down; just remember to knock them down first to remove the protection. Half the path is metal making Magneto pretty solid, and he usually will turn the protection node off making the fights go by quickly. Symbiote Supreme on the path caused the most problems since if you use the bullet time node, you’ll have to dex and gain a precision which will usually get nullified by him. If I did that fight again, I’d probably bring a nullify immune champ like Thing or Crossbones with synergy.
2. Superiority: Paragon (#Hero), Rise Above, Flail, Clapback, Ebb and Flow – Heavy
Champs that worked well: Claire, Magneto, Human Torch, Angela
Thoughts on the path: This was a pretty straightforward path which Human Torch makes light work of. Clapback places any debuff you place on the opponent onto you as well, so you can build to super high smoulders pretty easily. Claire works similarly with being able to cycle your specials quickly.
3. Juggling Act – Cold Snap/Incinerate, Energy Adoption: Ice and Fire, Blood in the Water, Stun Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Magneto (vs Stryfe), Angela
Thoughts on the path: Any time I saw energy adoption my mind would jump straight to Ghost since she ends the fights insanely quickly. So if you have a Ghost, then you’ll have a fun time on this path. The fights I didn’t use Ghost for on the path were Professor X (I used max sig Angela) and Stryfe. I realized the incinerate and coldsnap from the nodes are actually pretty negligible and if you have willpower on, you can pretty much use anyone.
4. Intervention: Fury, Tyranny, Power Shield
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Doom, Ghost
Thoughts on the path: Only villains can gain power so you wanna use villain champs since there’s a power shield node too. Ghost as usual dominates this, most fights are over after one sp2 (from a rank 3 6*, I imagine a rank 5 5* would be similar). There’s a few metal champs on this path which I used Magneto for, one sp2 and you’re hitting more than 400-500k and they’re down.
5. Superiority: Paragon (#Hero), Superconductor, Static Blast, Flare
Champs that worked well: Warlock, Colossus, Angela
Thoughts on the path: This path had this node superconductor which gives your attackers resistance to power burn, drain and steal with an armour up which pretty much counters the static blast node. You get extra resistance potency if you use #Hero champs. There’s a Domino and Havok on the path so I went for Warlock here. You can basically use anyone on the path thanks to flare, but try and only use champs with class advantage and the degen won’t kill you even after the full duration.
6. Counter Tactics, Release Valve, Foresight, Unblockable Specials
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Wasp, Nick, Angela
Thoughts on the path: Release valve nicely counters counter tactic so you don’t need to really worry about it. Foresight is one of the nodes which rewards a big passive fury when you intercept so naturally Ghost dominated it as usual. There is a Killmonger and Ebony Maw on the path so I’d recommend keeping them in mind when choosing your team. Specials are unblockable which isn’t a problem since most champs on the path have easy specials to dex, but be careful about pushing Elsa and Ebony Maw to their sp2s.
Bosses
Magneto (Moth to the Flame, Power Buildup, Spite, Aggressive, Unblockable Specials) x1
Champs that worked well: Human Torch
Strategy for the boss: Nova flames on and make sure to keep Fervor charges up by keeping the distance closed between you and him. Avoid dexing when possible and bait sp1 as much as you can.
Modok (Stampede, Defective Defense, Spectre of Ailment, Aggressive, Shock Immunity) x4
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Nick
Strategy for the boss: easy oneshot every time with Magneto playing the normal way, build your prowess up and let off a big sp3 and let the bleed tick him down. I used Nick on one of the runs too who works well. You can pretty much ignore stampede since you won’t be parrying much cause of defective defense, so I reckon any champ who can ignore autoblock would work well.
Moleman (Fight or Flight, Bleed Vulnerability, Foresight, Incinerate Immunity, No Hit-M…ercy 3) x1
Champs that worked well: Nick
Strategy for the boss: Bleed vulnerability is a node that calls for Nick, easy fight with him. First bit of the fight is a little slow since he’ll be shrugging off your debuffs but once he’s in frenzy, it becomes straightforward. End your combos on a light and you’re good to go. I’d recommend going into the second life of Nick and getting unblockable so you don’t have to worry about hitting his block and him going unstoppable.
14
Comments
1. Superiority: Top Dog (Class Advantage), Outburst, Power Snack, Hard Knock Life
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Angela
Thoughts on the path: Outburst gives you nullify immunity when you get a buff nullified so it basically counters power snack so you don’t need to worry about it really. Hard knock life lowers your defensive ability accuracy when you parry so if you rely on parrying too much, your parries will start to fail quickly. No surprise here but Ghost dominates this path too.
2. Wax On Wax Off, Rust and Ruin, Mystic Wraith, Power Buildup, Special Burst Lock Down
Champs that worked well: Claire, Doom
Thoughts on the path: Rust and ruin puts armour breaks on you when you attack the opponent but the wax on wax off node purifies all your debuffs when you nullify the opponents buffs so again you can mostly ignore the node and even use it to your advantage to heal with willpower. Doom was an mvp for this path giving his armour break immunity and power control abilities. Hardest fight on the path was Apocalypse but even that was an easy one shot with Doom using the normal rotations.
3. Superiority: Top Dog (Class Advantage), Discombobulate, Particle Protector, Micro-Reflect, The Weak Link
Champs that worked well: Crossbones, Nick, Magneto, Archangel
Thoughts on the path: You ideally want to use champs with class advantage here to avoid the micro-reflect damage. There’s only science and skill champs so bring out your mutants and skill champs and discombobulate (when you dodge an attack, apply a disorient debuff to your opponent reducing defensive ability accuracy) to your advantage!
4. Power Shield, Life Transfer, Special Burst Lock Down, Spectre of Ailment
Champs that worked well: IHulk, Claire, Nick
Thoughts on the path: This is an interesting one because it has life transfer but also power shield meaning you won’t be healing unless you’re throwing specials. I had some fun playing around with IHulk since he’s immune to the spectre but most champs would work fine for this path. Nick works nicely too since his bleeds still do damage even with power shield up, just make sure to throw specials when you get them so you don’t degen to death.
5. Ebb and Flow Intercept, Foresight, Combo Party, Aggressive
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Elsa, Claire
Thoughts on the path: Champs who can get easy intercepts will make this an easier node but basically any champ can do it. There is a CGR and Airwalker on the path so you won’t be able to Ghost it all but that’s a nice excuse to play around with some other champs haha.
6. Superiority: Top Dog (Class Advantage), Passive Aggressive, Oscillate, The Weak Link, Footloose
Champs that worked well: Doom, Spidergwen, Claire
Thoughts on the path: This was probably one of my least favourite paths in 7.2 I just really don’t like oscillate at all, it makes the fights so much slower waiting around half the time. The other notable node was footloose so make sure you have a champ with staggers or slow and it should be a good, but slow, time.
Bosses
White Magneto (While the Iron is Hot, Special Connoisseur, Power Buildup, Unblockable) x1
Champs I used: Human Torch, Claire
Strategy: Prefight on with Torch and make use of the while the iron is hot node for the prowesses and it’s fairly straightforward. Be careful with dexing his sp1s though, I found that he can take you out from full health with one.
Tigra (Wombo Combo, Staggering Beauty, Prey on the Weak, Heavy Assault) x1
Champs I used: Human Torch
Strategy: Use the heavy assault to your advantage and this fight goes by a lot easier than you’d think. I used nova flames here and baited as many sp1’s as I could while weaving in heavies.
Guardian (Power Shield, Aggression Armour, Do Not Disturb, Heavy Handed, True Strike) x4
Champs I used: Magneto
Strategy: Just built up my prowesses to 40+, threw and sp3 and let the bleeds tick him down.
1. Buffet, Heal Reversal, Safeguard, Aspect of War
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Warlock, Magneto
Thoughts on the path: At a glance this seemed like an awful path but in reality, it’s actually pretty fun! So safeguard means you can’t burst them down with big damage but buffet and heal reversal work very well together meaning every 7 seconds you can reverse 10% of their health. So you can pretty much use anyone for this path besides Red Guardian I guess. There is aspect of war so be careful not to parry too much. As usual, Ghost was a good option due to her easy intercepts and having no need for blocking, you just need to double dash back to get a precision buff for the buffet to nullify.
2. Superiority: Even Footing (Same Class), Set in Stone, Vigor, Supercharge, Mystic Ward
Champs that worked well: Wasp, Nick, Void
Thoughts on the path: Lots of power gain and regen potential on this path but set in stone rewards you for getting off intercepts by putting a petrify on the opponent. If you’re comfortable with intercepts, then this path is pretty straightforward since you’re reversing their healing and power gain a lot of the time. If you want to ignore the set in stone node, you can make use of the typical good petrify options like Void, Mister Fantastic etc…
3. Stacking Power, Special Delivery, Fight or Flight
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Hyperion
Thoughts on the path: Anyone can be used here. So you can’t power and you need to throw a special every 15 hits. That sounds like a nightmare, but that’s where stacking power comes to save you. Every time you gain a buff then you gain 20% of a bar of power, and both the precision from dexterity and the unstoppable from fight or flight count to this so you can use anyone you want here. Using champs with their own buffs would make life easier though haha. If you wanna use Ghost, you can get to a sp2 pretty easily but spamming your heavies to get furies which give you power.
4. Superiority: Even Footing (Same Class), Dynamo, Energy Adoption: Ice and Lightning
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Angela
Thoughts on the path: Another energy adoption path = easy time with Ghost.
5. Redlining, Unblockable Specials, Specialist 2
Champs that worked well: Warlock, Claire, Wasp, Ghost
Thoughts on the path: This path wants you to throw sp2s so bring champs which can pack a punch with their sp2. There’s a Havok on the path so I brought Warlock to help there. The defenders do have unblockable specials but thankfully they’re all easy to evade.
6. Superiority: Even Footing (Same Class), Repulsive, Rust and Ruin, Thorns
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Nick, Falcon, CGR
Thoughts on the path: So this path has thorns which isn’t a fun node, but the node repulsive turns the path into an enjoyable one! If you use a champ that isn’t armour break immune and of the same class as the defender then you can ignore most of thorns damage based on the amount of debuffs on you, and also reflect a lot of damage back to the opponents. And then there’s Magneto who basically just turns off the nodes and makes the metal fights a joke.
Bosses
Venom the Duck (Critical Eye, Crit Me With Your Best Shot, Critical Setup, Aggressive) x1
Champs I used: Ghost
Strategy: Got a one shot with Ghost even with the class disadvantage. You can only do damage through crits in this fight which is why I used Ghost, but critical setup lets you use whoever you want though since it gives you guaranteed crits if you end a combo with the same attack as the previous combo.
Hit-Monkey (Lifecycle, No Hit-M…ercy, Heavy Assault, Shock Immunity) x1
Champs I used: Ghost, Magneto
Strategy: Lifecycle is the annoying bit here but other than that it’s just a normal Hit-Monkey fight. I found that using Magneto and just sticking to heavies only did a really nice amount of damage so if I were to take this boss again, I’d make use of heavy assault. You just need to be careful of his evade after you knock him down.
Punisher 2099 (Surge Protector, Power Struggle) x4
Champs I used: Magneto, Wasp
Strategy: This was really easy imo. You can only gain power when the opponent gains power and they have these surge charges which refund them some energy, but you can spend the charges if you beat them to throwing the special first. I used Magneto in some runs for the perfect block against his specials, and Wasp on another but you there’s no big restrictions so anyone should be fine.
1. Slumber, Flare, Particle Protector, Size Matters
Champs that worked well: IHulk, Warlock, Hyperion, Apocalypse
Thoughts on the path: Slumber and flare is a fun time together. Any extra large and large champs works great for this path but ideally have champs with class advantage to minimize health loss from flare. I had a great time with Immortal Hulk here since slumber let him get to insane damage numbers.
2. Superiority: Underdog (Class Disadvantage), Deep Impact, Oscillate
Champs that worked well: Claire, Magneto, Nick, Angela
Thoughts on the path: Deep impact increases your attack and block penetration when hitting your specials into block but I found the increase to be pretty negligible. So the main node for the path here is just oscillate which is the usual boring node we’ve all fought countless times. No specific champs you need to bring. You can use champs with class disadvantage though thanks to the underdog node.
3. Superiority: Underdog (Class Disadvantage), Cut Your Losses, Burden of Might, Destructive Feedback
Champs that worked well: Angela, Ghost
Thoughts on the path: Destructive feedback is back so you have half the fight where you can’t get hit by the opponent and they don’t take your damage until the phase is over. But this was actually one of my favourite paths in 7.2 thanks to cut your losses which gives you a fury whenever you lose some power which burden of might does for you. If you have an Angela, I highly recommend her cause she was hitting so hard for this path!
4. Mercy, Mutagenic Acceleration, Bubble Shield
Champs that worked well: Nick, Magneto, Ghost
Thoughts on the path: So in this path you can’t do much damage to the opponent unless they’ve got a mercy passive. And to give them mercy passives, you need to build up mercy passives of your own by dexing over and over and then you transfer them to the opponent by parrying. They fall off the opponent one at a time so it isn’t too hard to keep them on the opponent for most of the fight. I’d recommend having a big special ready for when you transfer mercy to the defender to maximise your damage in the limited windows of damage you have.
5. Mix Master, Light ‘em Up, Counterstrike, Incinerate and Shock Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Nick, Professor X, Magneto
Thoughts on the path: Just a typical mix master path with some added stuff you can pretty much ignore. There is light ‘em up which reduces defender evade and auto block ability accuracy if you shock or incinerate them which opens up some more options like Torch, Sunspot, BWDO, etc… otherwise you can stick to typical evade counters or just play with alternating basic attacks and you’ll be fine here.
6. Superiority: Underdog (Class Disadvantage), Head Rush, Tenacity, Stun Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Ghost, Apocalypse, Wasp, Doom
Thoughts on the path: This path has an annoying level of tenacity and the node which is meant to benefit you (headrush) doesn’t provide much benefit so it’s better using champs like Omega Red and Apocalypse who can stop shrug offs and Magneto against the metal champs. I suppose a White Magneto would be useful here but I don’t have him above a 4* so couldn’t try it out.
Bosses
Man Thing (High Energy Diet, Power Shield, Flare, Power Reversal, Unblockable) x1
Champs I used: Immortal Abomination
Strategy: I saw Man Thing as a boss and I instantly thought to use Immortal Abomination without even checking the nodes. Thankfully there was no poison immunity nodes hahaha. This guy has high energy diet which basically discourages using champs like Torch for it and also has flare so you want to ideally use someone with class advantage to limit that degen. I can see Red Hulk and She Hulk working nicely here. My strategy was letting the acid burns do most of my damage, so first got to my sp2 and then after that just made use of my sp1 to keep poisons on my aura up.
Immortal Abomination (Meltdown, Hurt Locker, Kinetic Transference, Enhanced Special 1, Power Drain) x 3
Champs I used: Archangel, Ghost
Strategy: Most notable node her is meltdown which deals a fat burst of damage to the person who has it when it expires. You pass meltdown onto the opponent by throwing specials and they give it back when they throw specials. Simple enough, although you need to alternate your specials because of hurt locker. I’d say a poison immune is necessary, but that’s not really true since I used Archangel for 2 of my runs. Horseman Archangel would be safer but I used him on his own, subbing him in, and he worked totally fine. My last attempt I decided to spice it up a little and used Ghost, purposefully let him throw his sp2 to get loads of poisons on me and then threw back to back huge sp2s with a tech power boost. Got the solo but would not recommend that method at all hahaha.
Nova (Burnout, Time to Strike, Supercharge, Fury, Aggressive) x2
Champs I used: Magneto, Doom
Strategy: I’d say you can mostly ignore the burnout node if you know how to dex his specials and that makes it close a normal, although stacked in health, Nova fight. Every once in a while after you’ve dexed enough specials, Nova degens a bit but I personally didn’t really notice that since I was using Magneto and Doom who either reduces his ability accuracy or was controlling his power.
1. Superiority: Scoundrel (#Villain), Backhanded Compliment, Surging Vengeance, Tyranny
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Doom, Red Hulk,
Thoughts on the path: This path has surging vengeance which makes the defender throw their specials in order up to sp3 and repeat. You don’t want them to ever throw a sp3 because you most likely won’t survive. Backhanded compliment works in your favour by applying a taunt when you knock the opponent down with a heavy while using a villain making them throw their specials even if it’s in the wrong order. There’s a Killmonger on the path which can be annoying but if you use Magneto’s sp2 once in the fight, he becomes easily manageable. Otherwise, champs like Terrax, Omega Red, etc.. should be fine. You can technically use other non-villain champs with taunt like Spider-Ham, Stark Spidey etc, but you can’t gain power so you’d be better off using a random villain in your roster there.
2. Rage, Power Shield, Hurt Locker, Poison Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Immortal Abomination, Nick, Archangel
Thoughts on the path: There’s rage and power shield here which basically means you can’t do big bursts of damage on this path and you need to rely on DOT effects. You can use any of your choice but I personally made use of the poison vulnerability with Immortal Abomination and had a ton of fun there!
3. Buff Synthesis – Cruelty/Precision, Combo Party, Unblockable Specials
Champs that worked well: Magneto, Ghost, Claire
Thoughts on the path: Combo party and the buff synthesis nodes synergise with each other very well and the bonus you get is being able to block unblockable specials, something which all the defenders on the path have. All the defenders have easy to evade specials though so it’s not really something to stress over and you can just play without worrying about nodes too much. There’s 4 metal champs in the path so of course Magneto came out to play.
4. Superiority: Scoundrel (#Villain), Swing and a Miss, Missing in Action, Faltering Mind, Arc Overload
Champs that worked well: Ghost
Thoughts on the path: There seems to be a lot going on here but to break it down, you can get falter on you when a buff expires on the defender and when the timer shows up you need to throw either a heavy or a special within 3 seconds to stop the falter landing on you and landing on the opponent instead. You’re rewarded for using villain champs for this path with you gaining indefinite furies when the opponent misses you, so I used Ghost with a tech power boost and had the path done in an incredibly short time. You can use the normal miss counters too, like Nick, Professor X, Human Torch, etc… but I didn’t give them a go in my run.
5. Debuff Synthesis – Weakness/Stun, That’s Gonna Sting, Power Focus 2, Defective Defense
Champs that worked well: Spider-Ham, Immortal Abomination, Wasp
Thoughts on the path: This was one of my favourite paths in 7.2! Power sting potency is increased by 300% and the node gives you free powerstings if you can apply a weakness. If you run the resonate mastery then I’m sure you can literally use anyone, but if you’ve got a Spider-Ham then you’re laughing. There’s a power focus 2 on the defenders too so it’s easy to get them to throw back to back specials. Vision can be risky so be sure to watch out for synthesis.
6. Debuff Synthesis – Stun/Bleed, Energy Adoption: Lightning, Indomitable, Shock Tether
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Nick
Thoughts on the path: More energy adoption = easy time with Ghost!
There is a Hulkbuster on the path though which can’t be Ghosted so I used Nick. The debuff synthesis node gives nice poisons when you bleed the opponent while they’re stunned. Since it’s only shock debuffs you need to worry about, you can use any shock immune and be fine. I can definitely see Moleman having a great time here.
Bosses
Platinumpool (Smorgasbord, Draw 5 Cards, Juke) x1
Champs I used: Warlock
Strategy: I'll be completely honest, I still haven’t bothered to learn Platinumpool’s abilities since he’s not commonly found in the game so I just winged this fight. First tried with Ghost but he kept getting some insane regen so I went in again with Warlock and one shot it. It was really slow with Warlock but if you make use of Juke then it’s not too bad since you hit harder and harder as the fight goes on.
Void (Set Up and Spike, Safeguard, Force of Will) x2
Champs I used: Nick Fury
Strategy: Honestly this was a very easy boss fight. It’s a high health Void with safeguard so you want to use champs with damage over time, and Nick works perfectly for it. There’s a bonus node where you take damage if you knock the opponent down and they have less than 6 debuffs, or they take damage if they have more than 6, so champs that rely on knocking down the opponent are probably best avoided. Moleman comes to mind as something who would probably work great.
Dragon Man (Stunning Reflection, Empowered Immunity) x3
Champs I used: Ghost, Red Hulk, Torch
Strategy: You can’t stun the opponent since it’ll get reflected back to you so treat it as if it’s stun immune. To get rid of his power gain charge, I let him throw his sp1 into my block and you get a nice debuff on you which keeps you topped up – with my Red Hulk run, I finished with a full yellow bar. It is a pretty slow fight since he has huge health but not really difficult at all. You can use an incinerate to periodically turn off his stunning reflection so Torch melts him easily.
1. No Retreat, No Surrender!, Heavy Assault, Right Back At It, True Strike
Champs that worked well: Wasp, Doom
Thoughts on the path: You get 500% increased attack while using specials which makes champs like Wasp hit insanely hard. They do get a debuff immunity temporarily after you knock them down, but this is where Wasp and Doom’s passive shock works nicely. There is no retreat too but the no surrender node can turn that into a benefit for you by sending it to the defender when you knock them down.
2. Energy Adoption: Fire, Shake It Off, Shifting Immunity: Bleed and Poison, Bleed Vulnerability
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Claire, Magneto
Thoughts on the path: More energy adoption, more walking through most of it with Ghost.
3. Under Pressure, Heavy Assault, Encroaching Stun, Foresight, True Strike
Champs that worked well: Torch, Wasp, Magneto, Ghost
Thoughts on the path: Heavy assault again which gives you huge damage when you use heavies, so just sticking to parry and heavy works good here. There’s a Mephisto on the path who it’s a good idea to bring a counter for, I used Torch with nova flames which made light work of him.
4. Buff Synthesis: Fury/Precision, Special Connoisseur, Icarus, Matador
Champs that worked well: Ghost, Angela, Magneto
Thoughts on the path: The buff synthesis and icarus work together so well here meaning you don’t have to worry about special connoisseur. Each time you get a precision (through dexing) while you have a fury (from icarus), you get a nice prowess and in no time at all you’re hitting ridiculous numbers. After champs that’d work well are the usual icarus counters like Killmonger with Void, Captain Marvel, Spider-Ham, etc…
5. Debuff Synthesis: Stun/Armour Break, Mix Master, Hit Me I Dare You, Armoured Assault
Champs that worked well: Angela, Ghost, Magneto
Thoughts on the path: If you use a champ with easy access to armour breaks, then you can totally ignore basically all the nodes since the debuff synthesis places a coldsnap on the opponent and the armour breaks will take care of armoured assault.
6. Buff Synthesis: Armour Up/Precision, Flare, Physical Resistance, Energy Resistance, Critical Resistance
Champs that worked well: Angela, Warlock, Nick, Colossus
Thoughts on the path: There’s an insane amount of resistance on this path so you want to use either DOT effects or make use of buff synthesis which gives you a true strike if you gain a precision while you’ve got an armour up.
Boss
Gwenmaster
Champs I used: Claire, Magneto, Doom, Wasp, Angela
Strategy: This is one of my favourite fights in the entire game and partly because you can literally use anyone and it’s completely skill based. My rank 3 Wasp was my personal favourite option, but that’s more so because she’s one of my favourite champs and I’m comfortable with her animations. You can use who you feel comfortable with. I won’t go into the individual linked nodes because I personally didn’t really notice them besides like one or two. But to master this fight, you need to have an understanding of each of her phases and what you need to do. Additionally, she has a timer which you have to complete the tasks before she gets to her sp2 and nukes you but you can extend the timer with some cheeky intercepts. She’s very aggressive so it’s not too hard to get into a rhythm of dashing back, having her chase you and you punishing her with an intercept.
She starts off in her Emma Frost phase where you need to evade her special when she has 4 prowesses. To gain a prowess, you need to take her out of diamond form which is done in the same way as Emma. I found throwing specials when she’s just under a bar of power worked nicely in getting her out of diamond form. Just be careful of evading her specials, in this form your controls are reversed during specials.
The next phase is the Killmonger phase which is actually pretty straightforward, you just need to stay aggressive. You have to hit her 60 times to drop the counter down, which champs with multi hit specials can help with, although it’s not at all necessary. Same as Killmonger after his sp1, you can’t hit into her block so it’s a bit more risky to get your intercepts and pause the timer. Do not throw specials at her after her own special or you’ll get it all reflected back to you.
The next phase is the Invisible Woman phase which you just need to get rid of her forcefield. You get a big fury when intercepting which is what you want to be doing so you don’t run out of time for the task. I found that throwing a special while I have the fury from intercepting took off a bigger chunk of the forcefield. Be careful of her going invisible after specials.
The next phase is the Doom phase which in my opinion is the easiest phase. You need to knock her down 4 times using unique ways each time, and there’s only 4 unique ways to do that which is heavy, sp1, sp2 and sp3. It seems like a lot of power you need to get those all done in the timer but each time you knock her down, you get a nice energise buff making it quicker to hit the next special.
The next phase is the Vision Aarkus phase which is quite annoying and did trip me up a fair bit. You need to get 10 armour breaks on you which you get by keeping your distance but it’s made harder with her being so aggressive. On top of that, there’s some fun coldsnap damage after she throws her sp1. I found rather than being passive, it’s good to be aggressive yourself and hit your intercepts, heavies and specials to keep distance and the armour breaks will naturally build up.
The last phase is the Iron Man phase which is not too bad once you understand what you need to do. So you have to get rid of her armour ups by ending combos with light attacks, but she also stuns you if you try to hit her after she throws her sp1. To get around this, you need to heavy counter her heavy which also gets rid of an armour up. This is where I found that Wasp is really nice because of her heavy animation making it easy to counter heavies.
If she’s not dead by now then the phases loop back to the beginning and repeat.
I’d say 7.2 was really fun content and I’m excited to see what the future of story content is like and whether we get more fights like Gwenmaster!
Thank you for reading and best of luck with your explorations
Even if only a few people can find some use in my guide, then I’m happy
Best of luck!