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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.
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Scarce's Grandmaster Takedown Story
Scarcity27
Posts: 1,906 ★★★★★
A couple of days ago, I decided to take the plunge and take down the final quest in Act 6. Obviously, I succeeded, or I wouldn't have made this post. I thought I'd share my thoughts and journey.
First off, I'm not the best of players at all. I certainly had to do my research, and was definitely preparing for the worst. But, I managed to get it done, and I hope that my experience would be helpful. There are multiple youtubers and end game players talking about this fight, but I want to show how a nervous, very average, first timer should go through this fight.
TL;DR at the end.
Which is not a lot to go on.
I started off by watching youtube videos. I found Seatin's guide to be most helpful, MCOC Noob being another mention. I also watched a few solos, just to put myself at ease, I suppose.
The next step was farming items. Now, we had received some general compensation a couple of weeks back (the revives from which I had used pretty soon). I had those pots still. I also tried to do the Level Up, Hero Use, and Arena solo events as much as possible. I also managed to get about 870 units through the events and arena and whatnot.
So in the end, I had 16 20% revives, 1 40% revive, and 1 team revive, which in hindsight seems inadequate, but I was optimistic.
Then I went on planning my run.
Now, I wanted to go for the easiest path, just because I didn't want to use any items till the GM, and wanted my team to have a reasonable amount of health.
Naturally, I chose the Cosmic Tenacity path. Which brings us to the next section.
Doom
Claire
Red Mags
CAIW
Prof X
Doom is a 6* R2 and the others were maxed out 5*s, with CAIW being the only one that was awakened, at around sig 70-80.
Doom and Claire were obvious choices for the path, and so was Mags. The good thing about the GM is that anyone can take him down, if you're skilled enough. I, of course, was not.
I decided on CAIW for my go to for the boss. He's got got damage and tankiness, has access to DOT, crits frequently, and is easy to use.
Prof X took the last spot in my team, something I was a bit wary off. Now I know Prof X is a beast, that's why I maxed him out. Except, I hadn't gotten the hang of him yet. I tried practicing a bit, but I was nowhere near good enough. But then again, playstyles don't really work when fighting the Grandmaster, and reverse controls can be a nightmare, so I took Prof X in anyway.
I had done a few trial runs of the path, making it all the way up to Angela in one, only to mess up royally. I tried to take as many fights with Claire as possible, just because I save Doom some health, and between them, he'd be more useful for the boss fight.
Right, so this is how it went:
Phoenix : Standard fight. Used Claire. Definitely screwed up and caught some blows, but Claire thankfully has regen.
Heimdall : Used Mags. Pretty standard fight, can't really remember what happened tbh.
Groot : Used Claire again. Got hit a lot more than I am willing to admit, but managed to get out with good health.
Annihilus : Used Mags. Was incredibly annoying, but I ultimately got him down. Willpower regen helped a ton.
Hela : Used Claire, pretty insignificant fight. Being able to dex the sp1 was a gift.
Aarkus : Used Doom. I definitely struggled with controlling his power, despite using Doom. I think I got an sp3 to the face. But got it done anyway.
Carnage : Used Claire. Another standard fight.
CMM : Used Claire. I think I got KO'd and had to use Doom to finish her off.
Angela : Used either Doom or Mags. Kinda annoying fight. Would advise using Mags to counter the regen.
Sentinel : Used Mags, but does it really matter?
Now, for the main event.
I get KO'd instantly. Typical.
I use Prof X, who meets a similar fate, more or less. Cap did some damage ("some") before face planting himself. After spending my team revive, I decide to follow my original plan: Keep reviving Cap.
Strengths : I was able to get him wounded with relative ease. There were also some excellent intercepts in there. The GM's sp1 is very easy to master as well (famous last words).
Weaknesses : I did get clipped by heavies a few times. I also did 5 hit combos from muscle memory a few times, which led me to gain tokens of blunder when light attacks got banned. It also took some time (and revives) for me to settle into the fight, because I was an absolute nervous wreck.
Tips : Intercept a lot at the start, just dash in, medium, dash back, and after getting a good amount of competence, do parries and lights to get them banned. Then get dex banned. Try not to get dex banned first.
Overall, it wasn't too bad.
I took a few revives to get the hang of this fight, and got him down to 60%, with most of my units intact. At this point it was pretty late for me, so I slept, and resumed the next day.
I did struggle a lot to get the challenges done and get him wounded, and definitely ended up getting KO'd many times without doing any real damage. I was all sweaty palms, horrible decisions.
Strengths : When I got it right, it was sweeeet. I could do considerable damage in the wounded stage. Also, 'gain a buff' challenge was easy. Obviously
Weaknesses : I got hit when the GM was infuriated a few times. I also got hit by heavies. I also got an sp1, sp2, and sp3 to the face. The intercept challenge I struggled with quite a bit.
Tips : You want to start hitting him before the first challenge appears (if you are using a champ with a DOT sp1), because it's very difficult to go from zero to one bar of power with the challenge timer on if your first challenge is inflict DOT. And try not to throw specials when he is a little above one bar, because it's very easy to push him to sp2.
I did finally manage to get him down, with considerable reviving, and heavy boosting.
Strengths : The 'knock me down' and 'hit into my block' and 'dash back' challenged were quite fun and easy. Also, not having ot worry about reverse controls.
Weaknesses : The 'well timed block' challenge. I just could not get it right. The good thing is that was one of the challenges I got least. It was also hard at times to get him to throw his sp1. Because of the passive power gain, there were times when I pushed him to sp2, and times I ended up dashing back and baiting so much he got me cornered against the wall.
Tips : Bring a reverse controls immune champ. It really takes a load off. You don't have to worry about that timer. Also, it's ok to fail the well timed block challenge, especially if the block damage may get you KO'd. Like the second phase, try to build power before the challenge is set so you're ready if you get the 'knock me down' challenge.
But ultimately, this phase wasn't too bad.
Overall, not too bad. Didn't get unlucky with the cavs, but didn't get lucky either. I've always wanted Falcon, and awakening Medusa was nice too. Accidently bought the 6* featured, GR was a dupe so not too happy with that.
First off, I'm not the best of players at all. I certainly had to do my research, and was definitely preparing for the worst. But, I managed to get it done, and I hope that my experience would be helpful. There are multiple youtubers and end game players talking about this fight, but I want to show how a nervous, very average, first timer should go through this fight.
TL;DR at the end.
Preparation
I'll admit, I had no inkling of what the Grandmaster fight looked like until I had taken down the Hydra Adaptoid. In fact, a month ago I would have said it'd take me half a year to get to Grandmaster. but here we are, I guess. All I knew was that he gets wounded at some point, there's challenges, and in the end he is perma stunned and needs to be KO'd with an sp3.Which is not a lot to go on.
I started off by watching youtube videos. I found Seatin's guide to be most helpful, MCOC Noob being another mention. I also watched a few solos, just to put myself at ease, I suppose.
The next step was farming items. Now, we had received some general compensation a couple of weeks back (the revives from which I had used pretty soon). I had those pots still. I also tried to do the Level Up, Hero Use, and Arena solo events as much as possible. I also managed to get about 870 units through the events and arena and whatnot.
So in the end, I had 16 20% revives, 1 40% revive, and 1 team revive, which in hindsight seems inadequate, but I was optimistic.
Then I went on planning my run.
Now, I wanted to go for the easiest path, just because I didn't want to use any items till the GM, and wanted my team to have a reasonable amount of health.
Naturally, I chose the Cosmic Tenacity path. Which brings us to the next section.
My Team
Now, I needed to make sure I had options for both the path and GM. So here's what I came up with:Doom
Claire
Red Mags
CAIW
Prof X
Doom is a 6* R2 and the others were maxed out 5*s, with CAIW being the only one that was awakened, at around sig 70-80.
Doom and Claire were obvious choices for the path, and so was Mags. The good thing about the GM is that anyone can take him down, if you're skilled enough. I, of course, was not.
I decided on CAIW for my go to for the boss. He's got got damage and tankiness, has access to DOT, crits frequently, and is easy to use.
Prof X took the last spot in my team, something I was a bit wary off. Now I know Prof X is a beast, that's why I maxed him out. Except, I hadn't gotten the hang of him yet. I tried practicing a bit, but I was nowhere near good enough. But then again, playstyles don't really work when fighting the Grandmaster, and reverse controls can be a nightmare, so I took Prof X in anyway.
The Path
Before getting into the path details, I should have you know I was unbelievably exhausted when I decided to go for my run, which in hindsight led to a lot of silly slip-ups. I was just so annoyed with everything, on the verge of passing out, and it was quite late for me to be up.I had done a few trial runs of the path, making it all the way up to Angela in one, only to mess up royally. I tried to take as many fights with Claire as possible, just because I save Doom some health, and between them, he'd be more useful for the boss fight.
Right, so this is how it went:
Phoenix : Standard fight. Used Claire. Definitely screwed up and caught some blows, but Claire thankfully has regen.
Heimdall : Used Mags. Pretty standard fight, can't really remember what happened tbh.
Groot : Used Claire again. Got hit a lot more than I am willing to admit, but managed to get out with good health.
Annihilus : Used Mags. Was incredibly annoying, but I ultimately got him down. Willpower regen helped a ton.
Hela : Used Claire, pretty insignificant fight. Being able to dex the sp1 was a gift.
Aarkus : Used Doom. I definitely struggled with controlling his power, despite using Doom. I think I got an sp3 to the face. But got it done anyway.
Carnage : Used Claire. Another standard fight.
CMM : Used Claire. I think I got KO'd and had to use Doom to finish her off.
Angela : Used either Doom or Mags. Kinda annoying fight. Would advise using Mags to counter the regen.
Sentinel : Used Mags, but does it really matter?
Now, for the main event.
The Grandmaster, Phase One
So I'm at the Grandmaster, having KO'd my Doom and Claire. Mags is on ridiculously low health, so I decide to use him first, sort of as a sacrificial lamb to test the waters.I get KO'd instantly. Typical.
I use Prof X, who meets a similar fate, more or less. Cap did some damage ("some") before face planting himself. After spending my team revive, I decide to follow my original plan: Keep reviving Cap.
Strengths : I was able to get him wounded with relative ease. There were also some excellent intercepts in there. The GM's sp1 is very easy to master as well (famous last words).
Weaknesses : I did get clipped by heavies a few times. I also did 5 hit combos from muscle memory a few times, which led me to gain tokens of blunder when light attacks got banned. It also took some time (and revives) for me to settle into the fight, because I was an absolute nervous wreck.
Tips : Intercept a lot at the start, just dash in, medium, dash back, and after getting a good amount of competence, do parries and lights to get them banned. Then get dex banned. Try not to get dex banned first.
Overall, it wasn't too bad.
The Grandmaster, Phase Two
This is of course, the longest phase of the fight, and the one I was worst at. I used Cap almost exclusively for this bit, because of his ability to easily complete all the challenges.I took a few revives to get the hang of this fight, and got him down to 60%, with most of my units intact. At this point it was pretty late for me, so I slept, and resumed the next day.
I did struggle a lot to get the challenges done and get him wounded, and definitely ended up getting KO'd many times without doing any real damage. I was all sweaty palms, horrible decisions.
Strengths : When I got it right, it was sweeeet. I could do considerable damage in the wounded stage. Also, 'gain a buff' challenge was easy. Obviously
Weaknesses : I got hit when the GM was infuriated a few times. I also got hit by heavies. I also got an sp1, sp2, and sp3 to the face. The intercept challenge I struggled with quite a bit.
Tips : You want to start hitting him before the first challenge appears (if you are using a champ with a DOT sp1), because it's very difficult to go from zero to one bar of power with the challenge timer on if your first challenge is inflict DOT. And try not to throw specials when he is a little above one bar, because it's very easy to push him to sp2.
I did finally manage to get him down, with considerable reviving, and heavy boosting.
The Grandmaster, Phase Three
I was using Cap when I got in this phase, and decided to just go with it. I did get KO'd before getting him wounded, and before the inverse controls. From this point on, I used Prof X.Strengths : The 'knock me down' and 'hit into my block' and 'dash back' challenged were quite fun and easy. Also, not having ot worry about reverse controls.
Weaknesses : The 'well timed block' challenge. I just could not get it right. The good thing is that was one of the challenges I got least. It was also hard at times to get him to throw his sp1. Because of the passive power gain, there were times when I pushed him to sp2, and times I ended up dashing back and baiting so much he got me cornered against the wall.
Tips : Bring a reverse controls immune champ. It really takes a load off. You don't have to worry about that timer. Also, it's ok to fail the well timed block challenge, especially if the block damage may get you KO'd. Like the second phase, try to build power before the challenge is set so you're ready if you get the 'knock me down' challenge.
But ultimately, this phase wasn't too bad.
The Grandmaster, Phase Four
Long story short, I got him to phase 4 with Prof X, then got clipped by the infuriate. Then I revived Cap to finish him off.Rewards
Overall, not too bad. Didn't get unlucky with the cavs, but didn't get lucky either. I've always wanted Falcon, and awakening Medusa was nice too. Accidently bought the 6* featured, GR was a dupe so not too happy with that.
TL;DR
I beat the Grandmaster!11
Comments
Totally bookmarking this for when I make it to the GM. I'm currently on 6.2.5 Mordo
Great write up too I think this will help a lot of first timers
Congrats man!
I've now 100% act 7 and what's released of act 8, will tell you what I did different.
1. Get the uc/ cav eq completion offers. The boosts, revives and stuff are cheaper than using units. Also, the lower difficulty ones are also great value.
2. I didn't bother with the intercepts until I was better at the fight. Yes it's on the solos, and its quicker but its safer but longer doing it without, saved me units.
3. Heimdall saves units
Hope that helps if you decide to 100% ot later, for now I'd focus on 8.1 completion as the rewards for the 6 paths is excellent.
I wanna share my story
For me, I had zero preparation, had like no revives, 40 units-and a dream.
I entered the quest, just trying to get to GM, knowing it will be just another attempt ending in failure go even reach him... but did. I decided I AM taking him down.
It also was the last day of 2021, I wanted the date to be speical-new year, new act, new story...
It was gifting event, I've sent ally mates and friends requests for revives-LEND ME YOUR ENERGY!
And some did, some sent me team revives!
I have defeated the Grandmaster with the power of friendship, that's the story.
I have a video kinda about it, I mean you can see some of that