100k - 200k: Get the armor, crit and bleed functions at the start from a parry and 5 hit combo. Then get the evade function. Build to an sp2, throw a heavy and then the sp2 to cauterize the bleeds. You should have 5-8. I try to intercept the opponent with the sp2 if they're aggressive.
Over 200k: Same steps as above except you want to throw an sp1 before throwing your heavy and sp2 to get the cauterize, which grants an extra bleed. If the fight is long, you can build up to sp3 to get the power burn function. If you have the HB/Thro rags synergy you can take advantage of Ultron being bugged and only throw sp3s to cauterize your bleeds cause the damage bonus will be indefinite. I only do it for fun in ROL, doesn't feel good to use.
Btw I have to agree with OP. I've been using Ultron more than Warlock lately. WL's damage is just not great in act 7 with the big healthpools. Warlock is the king for most tech nodes in cav eq tho.
Im just gonna say as proud owner of ultron and warlock maxed 5*. Ultron is better he will always be better only because only reason i found which trumps is ultron heals 25% at 50% HP and 25%HP levels. i still have so much fun so much fun if lets say ultron dies in AQ map 6 i revive him just take his health to 25% and above play the game best way and comes out above 75% hp if u play him carefully he always always stays above 50% hp and occasionally goes down till 25% rest of his kit is badass damage potential as no mutent is immune to degen and bleed for non mutent. U know the cauterize mechanism. Warlock is usable mostly for healing control which honestly is not most champs. Warlock damage is not better then ultron. No way
I love ultron so much But imo the infection is one of the best utilities in the entire game But ultron pretty crazy too Very solid damage with HB synergy and nice immunities / energy resistance with awakened ability / clutch regen / bleeds It's very close but warlock still a tiny bit better imo
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Why can you not ramp her up?
Again >in situations where she can't rampup. Power lock nodes. Power drain nodes. Stubborn AI. Lag. Nodes punishing special usage.
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Then you are dead wrong, I used my g2099 in Eq,Sq,Aq and act 7 very much. I really did not need to ramp her up even in Aq. I took on Mini boss Ebony maw several time un ramped. She might not hit hard as she can after 100 combo but damage before 100 is still solid. And don't forget her armor potency which make her good tanky champ. I have her at 6r3 and been using her from day 1 when I got her. If I het 5star version I will happily take her to r5. 100 combi makes her damage nutty dor boss fights but for regular fights she is still very solid option. Tho I acknowledge your point that her damage can't be competed with champs who can burst down champs very fast eg CGR,Mags,Corvus etc. But she's steady and versatile champ
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Why can you not ramp her up?
Again >in situations where she can't rampup. Power lock nodes. Power drain nodes. Stubborn AI. Lag. Nodes punishing special usage.
If power lock nodes comes in still after 20 combo she will start selling some good damage making her good for such match up in practicality Doesn't matter if AI is passive ( I have faced this in AQ a lot) you need to hold your combo up. That's the only major point out there Punishing special usage, tbh she is not depended it all. But if you mean by hurt locker type nodes then remember if you have 2 charges she will regain like half of her max hp ( recovery mastery can boost it up)
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Why can you not ramp her up?
Again >in situations where she can't rampup. Power lock nodes. Power drain nodes. Stubborn AI. Lag. Nodes punishing special usage.
Power lock nodes are incredibly rare when you look at the game as a whole
Power drain nodes slightly more common but easily avoidable. It’s a slight, situational weakness
Stubborn AI, how does that stop you getting to an sp3?
Lag affects all champions, how does that stop you ramping her up?
Nodes that punish special usage don’t stop her ramping up. I’m assuming you mean hurt locker, stage fright etc. You can ramp her up by not using a special until the final 5% then use your sp3. If you mean something like special delivery then you can get to sp3 in 15 heavy attacks so that’s fine too. I can’t think of any nodes that punish you using one sp3, once in a match. But maybe I’m missing something
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Why can you not ramp her up?
Again >in situations where she can't rampup. Power lock nodes. Power drain nodes. Stubborn AI. Lag. Nodes punishing special usage.
Power lock nodes are incredibly rare when you look at the game as a whole
Power drain nodes slightly more common but easily avoidable. It’s a slight, situational weakness
Stubborn AI, how does that stop you getting to an sp3?
Lag affects all champions, how does that stop you ramping her up?
Nodes that punish special usage don’t stop her ramping up. I’m assuming you mean hurt locker, stage fright etc. You can ramp her up by not using a special until the final 5% then use your sp3. If you mean something like special delivery then you can get to sp3 in 15 heavy attacks so that’s fine too. I can’t think of any nodes that punish you using one sp3, once in a match. But maybe I’m missing something
Stubborn AI, in the sense of disrupting your cycle with light intercepts or never playing into you. High end AI has always managed to screw me over by doing wildcard moves. The walk and stop method they are capable of (and the player isn't) is annoying. Been caught out several times.
Lag affects her more than most, can't tell you how many times I missed a dex or parry or special evasion because of a lag spike and have had to ramp up again, suffering her less than ideal damage when below 100 combo.
I wouldn't say power lock nodes are incredibly rare, they're more common than you think.
She doesn't have utility to deal with nodes that temporarily punishes hitting power thresholds.
Sitting on a sp3 all fight to do it is clunky, there needs to be other ways for her to rampup correctly.
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Why can you not ramp her up?
Again >in situations where she can't rampup. Power lock nodes. Power drain nodes. Stubborn AI. Lag. Nodes punishing special usage.
Power lock nodes are incredibly rare when you look at the game as a whole
Power drain nodes slightly more common but easily avoidable. It’s a slight, situational weakness
Stubborn AI, how does that stop you getting to an sp3?
Lag affects all champions, how does that stop you ramping her up?
Nodes that punish special usage don’t stop her ramping up. I’m assuming you mean hurt locker, stage fright etc. You can ramp her up by not using a special until the final 5% then use your sp3. If you mean something like special delivery then you can get to sp3 in 15 heavy attacks so that’s fine too. I can’t think of any nodes that punish you using one sp3, once in a match. But maybe I’m missing something
Stubborn AI, in the sense of disrupting your cycle with light intercepts or never playing into you. High end AI has always managed to screw me over by doing wildcard moves. The walk and stop method they are capable of (and the player isn't) is annoying. Been caught out several times.
Lag affects her more than most, can't tell you how many times I missed a dex or parry or special evasion because of a lag spike and have had to ramp up again, suffering her less than ideal damage when below 100 combo.
I wouldn't say power lock nodes are incredibly rare, they're more common than you think.
She doesn't have utility to deal with nodes that temporarily punishes hitting power thresholds.
Sitting on a sp3 all fight to do it is clunky, there needs to be other ways for her to rampup correctly.
This is the biggest reach I've seen. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and find reasons you can't use her.
Both your first problems are literally solved by using her heavy. If you can't keep a combo Vs AI or lag then get combo shields, you can stack 5 not including her Sig that's another safety net and her chance to miss which is a 3rd safety net.
Power lock nodes are definitely rare, considering the only ones she doesn't work around are special lock nodes and the timer drain. Have everything explored and they're barely present
What nodes that temporarily punish hitting power thresholds are you talking about? Only thing coming to mind is use it or lose it which can be played through. If there's more list it.
And sitting on a sp3 all fight makes literally no difference on guillotine 2099. Her damage is per hit. Her sp2 does the almost the exact same damage doing 2 combos would, if you don't need sp1 power drain there's almost no reason to ever use specials when ramped. The sp2 heal reversal is nice but 9 times out of 10 you'll outdamage any healing regardless.
I don't see where the "clunky" comes from, not needing to use specials/knock down champs to ramp up is literally one of her strengths. Take a look at all the champs available and you'll realise how few can actually fill that niche
She doesn't need another way to ramp up that's how you overtune a champ
I never considered Ultron being better than Warlock. I suppose the ideology that Ghost is the best tech followed by Warlock has stood with me, but I never considered it.
What I have considered is that Ultron is very good, and can do a lot. I have certain things I take Ultron to constantly, and have found myself playing Warlock less because I like the Ultron character.
I like Ultron better because his bleeds and degen come more organically and his regeneration is very strong compared to Warlock’s.
Warlock has that infection that does so much.
Armor ups. I believe that if one of them had an armor break in their kit it would put them over the top.
Having both and trying to decide which is better is a great great problem to have.
Oh yeah, I like Warlock’s victory screen. When he hiccups and eyes pop out of his head - it makes my kid laugh.
If she doesn't get the chance to rampup, she's low demigod.
The you dont know how to user her . I cant blame you if you are using low rank g2099 in high content
I have a 6* btw. If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal Power control with sp1 Regen Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Why can you not ramp her up?
Again >in situations where she can't rampup. Power lock nodes. Power drain nodes. Stubborn AI. Lag. Nodes punishing special usage.
Power lock nodes are incredibly rare when you look at the game as a whole
Power drain nodes slightly more common but easily avoidable. It’s a slight, situational weakness
Stubborn AI, how does that stop you getting to an sp3?
Lag affects all champions, how does that stop you ramping her up?
Nodes that punish special usage don’t stop her ramping up. I’m assuming you mean hurt locker, stage fright etc. You can ramp her up by not using a special until the final 5% then use your sp3. If you mean something like special delivery then you can get to sp3 in 15 heavy attacks so that’s fine too. I can’t think of any nodes that punish you using one sp3, once in a match. But maybe I’m missing something
Stubborn AI, in the sense of disrupting your cycle with light intercepts or never playing into you. High end AI has always managed to screw me over by doing wildcard moves. The walk and stop method they are capable of (and the player isn't) is annoying. Been caught out several times.
Lag affects her more than most, can't tell you how many times I missed a dex or parry or special evasion because of a lag spike and have had to ramp up again, suffering her less than ideal damage when below 100 combo.
I wouldn't say power lock nodes are incredibly rare, they're more common than you think.
She doesn't have utility to deal with nodes that temporarily punishes hitting power thresholds.
Sitting on a sp3 all fight to do it is clunky, there needs to be other ways for her to rampup correctly.
Again, how does stubborn AI specifically affect her more than any other champ? At the end of the day, all her ramp up is, is getting to an Sp3. If the AI is stubborn it takes longer, but you could use stubborn AI as an example for why any champion is bad.
It seems you're not taking into account the up to 6 combo shields she can get, plus her sig. Which if used in conjunction with her combo shield from heavy, doesn't even need to be max, or even high sig, to have an incredibly high chance of proccing. Add in the chance to go invisible, and you've got an incredibly strong safety net for keeping combo. And again, lag affects all champions, it's not really a strong factor to use for why a champion is "demi god".
Power lock nodes are definitely rare. The Sp1 power lock is only in 6.1.3, 6.2.3 and 6.2.5 and the Sp2 power lock is only in 6.1.3, 6.2.3 and 6.2.4 - that's 6 total paths out of all of act 6 and 7.
Nodes that temporarily punishes hitting power thresholds like what? Use it or lose it? That's in one quest in 7.3. Aside from that, nodes that temporarily punish hitting power thresholds will trigger 3 times in a fight. Once at each bar of power, then you hold onto Sp3, which may feel clunky to you, but that's a subjective reason, not an objective one. In terms of difficulty to ramp up, which is what we are talking about, that doesn't come into play.
As for nodes that do, in fact, affect her being able to use an Sp3, I went through Aunt m.ai and searched for power, and also had a quick look through nodes which I knew would affect her Sp3. These are the places these nodes are located. This will either be bosses, or paths.
38 places may seem like a lot. But there are currently 3 chapters of Act 7 each with 6 quests, each with 6 paths. That's 108 potential places for these paths/nodes. In act 6, there are 4 chapters with 6 quests each. 6.1 has 10 paths per quest, 6.2 has 10 paths per quest, 6.3 has 6 per quest and 6.4 has 6 per quest. That's a total of 192 paths in act 6. So in total, that's 300 paths that a champion has potential to be used on. If Guilly is unable to use her sp3 in 38 of those places, then she has another 262 places where she can ramp up. She can ramp up in 87% of these paths. Now of course, this was a brief look and I'm convinced I missed a couple nodes that she couldn't ramp up against. But even if you found the same amount again, and you got another 38 places she couldn't be used. A champion who could be ramped up in 75% of the paths in the game, that sounds like a pretty easily rampable (made up word) champ. And just to pre-answer one of your points, I know there are other paths you won't want to use Guilly for, like mesmerise as an example, of course you'd want to use someone else. But that's not the discussion we are having, we're not saying the paths that Guilly isn't suited for, we are only talking about how easy it is to ramp her up.
If you rank up G2099, and you're able to ramp her up in 75% of the high end content that is act 6 and 7, I feel like you've got yourself a pretty reliable champion. Not quite low demi god. Now if she couldn't be ramped up except for 25% of the game, yeah, that seems a bit too rare for her to be useful.
I never considered Ultron being better than Warlock. I suppose the ideology that Ghost is the best tech followed by Warlock has stood with me, but I never considered it.
What I have considered is that Ultron is very good, and can do a lot. I have certain things I take Ultron to constantly, and have found myself playing Warlock less because I like the Ultron character.
I like Ultron better because his bleeds and degen come more organically and his regeneration is very strong compared to Warlock’s.
Warlock has that infection that does so much.
Armor ups. I believe that if one of them had an armor break in their kit it would put them over the top.
Having both and trying to decide which is better is a great great problem to have.
Oh yeah, I like Warlock’s victory screen. When he hiccups and eyes pop out of his head - it makes my kid laugh.
Let me paint u a picture. I have 6* r2 guardian G2 ally i consistently fight havok in important nodes and the most annoying can be is the one where armor breaks if u dont hit champ under 6 sec. On that node champs like guilly or warlock or my guardian are very risky to fight if havok is r3 6* defender. On that node ULTRON IS BEAST. Because a simple parry gives u armor up even if havok doesn't get stun from parry. U get armor and u can stack as many as u want just fight them where as if armor breaks for those above champs u have to wait 15 sec to reaper. I use guardian more in war as i said but 2nd preference is ultron and then maxed 5* warlock if i need heal suppression otherwise i dont give that guy a 2nd look. So armor up of ultron is usable especially against havok on that armor break node
I never considered Ultron being better than Warlock. I suppose the ideology that Ghost is the best tech followed by Warlock has stood with me, but I never considered it.
What I have considered is that Ultron is very good, and can do a lot. I have certain things I take Ultron to constantly, and have found myself playing Warlock less because I like the Ultron character.
I like Ultron better because his bleeds and degen come more organically and his regeneration is very strong compared to Warlock’s.
Warlock has that infection that does so much.
Armor ups. I believe that if one of them had an armor break in their kit it would put them over the top.
Having both and trying to decide which is better is a great great problem to have.
Oh yeah, I like Warlock’s victory screen. When he hiccups and eyes pop out of his head - it makes my kid laugh.
Let me paint u a picture. I have 6* r2 guardian G2 ally i consistently fight havok in important nodes and the most annoying can be is the one where armor breaks if u dont hit champ under 6 sec. On that node champs like guilly or warlock or my guardian are very risky to fight if havok is r3 6* defender. On that node ULTRON IS BEAST. Because a simple parry gives u armor up even if havok doesn't get stun from parry. U get armor and u can stack as many as u want just fight them where as if armor breaks for those above champs u have to wait 15 sec to reaper. I use guardian more in war as i said but 2nd preference is ultron and then maxed 5* warlock if i need heal suppression otherwise i dont give that guy a 2nd look. So armor up of ultron is usable especially against havok on that armor break node
Warlock is still better than ultron for that node. And you don’t even need an armour up buff.
In fact, if warlock didn’t have an armour up buff I would still be taking him to that fight over ultron. And that’s due to warlocks power drain ability.
Whenever Havok gets power drained, he loses all his plasma charges. Warlock power drains opponents when he blocks a non contact hit. Havok has a non contact medium.
If you dash back, and block his medium charge he will be power drained and lose his stacks of plasma. So dash back, reparry, bait a heavy if he throws it, go in and do 4 hits. Then block, don’t let him throw sp1, bait out a heavy and push him to sp2. The combination of power draining him, baiting specials and heavies means he won’t ever be on more than a few plasma charges.
If the opponent has willpower it’s even easier, any time there’s a debuff on Havok he literally can’t gain plasma charges. Warlock is built to counter havok, I don’t know if there will ever be a better counter.
I agree with @Terra , I don’t find her reliable at all.
In this Unblockable Unstoppable trend with dropped inputs and lag she wouldn’t be my first choice, and it’s really annoying to have to finish your fight with an SP3 to carry over your combo.
I’m sorry but maybe I don’t want to reach an SP3. Maybe I want to spam SP1s only to manage the fight. Maybe by the time the fight is managed I won’t be able to reach an SP3 and the opponent is knocked out.
It’s not hard to see how she can be an impractical champ to play, not many players will favour locking a champion’s highest potential behind an SP3 at 5% of opponent health, it’s increased mental load. But, some players will like it and will enjoy the challenge.
On top of all that, she needs her dupe and max sig. Otherwise, personally I’m just not comfortable tanking a hit. Now to be fair, I don’t have her duped or at max sig. If I did, I might be singing a slightly different tune; slightly.
Anyway back to the point, if you are comfortable with ending a fight with an SP3, good on you. But if you can manage it reliably, don’t expect others to or expect them to have the same experiences you have.
Different champs in the hands of different players do different things.
Comments
Over 200k: Same steps as above except you want to throw an sp1 before throwing your heavy and sp2 to get the cauterize, which grants an extra bleed. If the fight is long, you can build up to sp3 to get the power burn function. If you have the HB/Thro rags synergy you can take advantage of Ultron being bugged and only throw sp3s to cauterize your bleeds cause the damage bonus will be indefinite. I only do it for fun in ROL, doesn't feel good to use.
Op:- Yes
But imo the infection is one of the best utilities in the entire game
But ultron pretty crazy too
Very solid damage with HB synergy and nice immunities / energy resistance with awakened ability / clutch regen / bleeds
It's very close but warlock still a tiny bit better imo
If she doesn't get a chance to rampup, she literally only has:
Heal Reversal
Power control with sp1
Regen
Havok counter
All the juicy stuff with her is locked behind combo counter, and unlike others based on this area, she can't regain it once lost, she has to build up all the time.
Why can you not ramp her up?
Power lock nodes. Power drain nodes.
Stubborn AI.
Lag.
Nodes punishing special usage.
Doesn't matter if AI is passive ( I have faced this in AQ a lot) you need to hold your combo up. That's the only major point out there
Punishing special usage, tbh she is not depended it all. But if you mean by hurt locker type nodes then remember if you have 2 charges she will regain like half of her max hp ( recovery mastery can boost it up)
All this comes up for un ramped up g2099.
You can see Josh Kush vids
Power drain nodes slightly more common but easily avoidable. It’s a slight, situational weakness
Stubborn AI, how does that stop you getting to an sp3?
Lag affects all champions, how does that stop you ramping her up?
Nodes that punish special usage don’t stop her ramping up. I’m assuming you mean hurt locker, stage fright etc. You can ramp her up by not using a special until the final 5% then use your sp3. If you mean something like special delivery then you can get to sp3 in 15 heavy attacks so that’s fine too. I can’t think of any nodes that punish you using one sp3, once in a match. But maybe I’m missing something
Lag affects her more than most, can't tell you how many times I missed a dex or parry or special evasion because of a lag spike and have had to ramp up again, suffering her less than ideal damage when below 100 combo.
I wouldn't say power lock nodes are incredibly rare, they're more common than you think.
She doesn't have utility to deal with nodes that temporarily punishes hitting power thresholds.
Sitting on a sp3 all fight to do it is clunky, there needs to be other ways for her to rampup correctly.
Both your first problems are literally solved by using her heavy. If you can't keep a combo Vs AI or lag then get combo shields, you can stack 5 not including her Sig that's another safety net and her chance to miss which is a 3rd safety net.
Power lock nodes are definitely rare, considering the only ones she doesn't work around are special lock nodes and the timer drain. Have everything explored and they're barely present
What nodes that temporarily punish hitting power thresholds are you talking about? Only thing coming to mind is use it or lose it which can be played through. If there's more list it.
And sitting on a sp3 all fight makes literally no difference on guillotine 2099. Her damage is per hit. Her sp2 does the almost the exact same damage doing 2 combos would, if you don't need sp1 power drain there's almost no reason to ever use specials when ramped. The sp2 heal reversal is nice but 9 times out of 10 you'll outdamage any healing regardless.
I don't see where the "clunky" comes from, not needing to use specials/knock down champs to ramp up is literally one of her strengths. Take a look at all the champs available and you'll realise how few can actually fill that niche
She doesn't need another way to ramp up that's how you overtune a champ
What I have considered is that Ultron is very good, and can do a lot. I have certain things I take Ultron to constantly, and have found myself playing Warlock less because I like the Ultron character.
I like Ultron better because his bleeds and degen come more organically and his regeneration is very strong compared to Warlock’s.
Warlock has that infection that does so much.
Armor ups. I believe that if one of them had an armor break in their kit it would put them over the top.
Having both and trying to decide which is better is a great great problem to have.
Oh yeah, I like Warlock’s victory screen. When he hiccups and eyes pop out of his head - it makes my kid laugh.
It seems you're not taking into account the up to 6 combo shields she can get, plus her sig. Which if used in conjunction with her combo shield from heavy, doesn't even need to be max, or even high sig, to have an incredibly high chance of proccing. Add in the chance to go invisible, and you've got an incredibly strong safety net for keeping combo. And again, lag affects all champions, it's not really a strong factor to use for why a champion is "demi god".
Power lock nodes are definitely rare. The Sp1 power lock is only in 6.1.3, 6.2.3 and 6.2.5 and the Sp2 power lock is only in 6.1.3, 6.2.3 and 6.2.4 - that's 6 total paths out of all of act 6 and 7.
Nodes that temporarily punishes hitting power thresholds like what? Use it or lose it? That's in one quest in 7.3. Aside from that, nodes that temporarily punish hitting power thresholds will trigger 3 times in a fight. Once at each bar of power, then you hold onto Sp3, which may feel clunky to you, but that's a subjective reason, not an objective one. In terms of difficulty to ramp up, which is what we are talking about, that doesn't come into play.
As for nodes that do, in fact, affect her being able to use an Sp3, I went through Aunt m.ai and searched for power, and also had a quick look through nodes which I knew would affect her Sp3. These are the places these nodes are located. This will either be bosses, or paths.
Encroaching stun - 6.1.1, 6.2.3, 6.2.5, 6.3.2, 6.4.2, 6.4.3, 7.1.2, 7.1.6, 7.2.6. 9 total.
Power Struggle - 6.1.5, 6.2.5, 6.4.4, 6.4.5, 7.2.3, and 7.3.2. 6 total
Tranquillity - 6.1.5, 6.2.5 and 7.1.5. 3 paths total.
Periodic power drain - 6.1.5, 6.1.6, 6.2.2, 6.2.4, 6.2.5, 6.3.2, 6.3.4, 6.3.6. 8 total.
Power alternator - 7.1.2 and 7.1.3. 3 paths total.
Red lining - 7.1.2, 7.2.3 and 7.3.5. 3 total.
Static blast - 6.1.1, 6.2.3, 6.3.6, 6.4.2, 7.1.2, 7.2.1. 6 total.
38 places may seem like a lot. But there are currently 3 chapters of Act 7 each with 6 quests, each with 6 paths. That's 108 potential places for these paths/nodes. In act 6, there are 4 chapters with 6 quests each. 6.1 has 10 paths per quest, 6.2 has 10 paths per quest, 6.3 has 6 per quest and 6.4 has 6 per quest. That's a total of 192 paths in act 6. So in total, that's 300 paths that a champion has potential to be used on. If Guilly is unable to use her sp3 in 38 of those places, then she has another 262 places where she can ramp up. She can ramp up in 87% of these paths. Now of course, this was a brief look and I'm convinced I missed a couple nodes that she couldn't ramp up against. But even if you found the same amount again, and you got another 38 places she couldn't be used. A champion who could be ramped up in 75% of the paths in the game, that sounds like a pretty easily rampable (made up word) champ. And just to pre-answer one of your points, I know there are other paths you won't want to use Guilly for, like mesmerise as an example, of course you'd want to use someone else. But that's not the discussion we are having, we're not saying the paths that Guilly isn't suited for, we are only talking about how easy it is to ramp her up.
If you rank up G2099, and you're able to ramp her up in 75% of the high end content that is act 6 and 7, I feel like you've got yourself a pretty reliable champion. Not quite low demi god. Now if she couldn't be ramped up except for 25% of the game, yeah, that seems a bit too rare for her to be useful.
In fact, if warlock didn’t have an armour up buff I would still be taking him to that fight over ultron. And that’s due to warlocks power drain ability.
Whenever Havok gets power drained, he loses all his plasma charges. Warlock power drains opponents when he blocks a non contact hit. Havok has a non contact medium.
If you dash back, and block his medium charge he will be power drained and lose his stacks of plasma. So dash back, reparry, bait a heavy if he throws it, go in and do 4 hits. Then block, don’t let him throw sp1, bait out a heavy and push him to sp2. The combination of power draining him, baiting specials and heavies means he won’t ever be on more than a few plasma charges.
If the opponent has willpower it’s even easier, any time there’s a debuff on Havok he literally can’t gain plasma charges. Warlock is built to counter havok, I don’t know if there will ever be a better counter.
In this Unblockable Unstoppable trend with dropped inputs and lag she wouldn’t be my first choice, and it’s really annoying to have to finish your fight with an SP3 to carry over your combo.
I’m sorry but maybe I don’t want to reach an SP3. Maybe I want to spam SP1s only to manage the fight. Maybe by the time the fight is managed I won’t be able to reach an SP3 and the opponent is knocked out.
It’s not hard to see how she can be an impractical champ to play, not many players will favour locking a champion’s highest potential behind an SP3 at 5% of opponent health, it’s increased mental load. But, some players will like it and will enjoy the challenge.
On top of all that, she needs her dupe and max sig. Otherwise, personally I’m just not comfortable tanking a hit. Now to be fair, I don’t have her duped or at max sig. If I did, I might be singing a slightly different tune; slightly.
Anyway back to the point, if you are comfortable with ending a fight with an SP3, good on you. But if you can manage it reliably, don’t expect others to or expect them to have the same experiences you have.
Different champs in the hands of different players do different things.