No real hope for the Grandmaster?

I've been studying countless videos, trying to get a grasp of how the Grandmaster fight would be. And I also know that perhaps I'll have to do a few practices before I really even start to get it down.

But that means going through THE REST of 6.4.6 just to get to him. And I am doing *terribly*

I farmed a TON of revives for Grandmaster so that I would be good and ready when the time came that I thought I could actually beat him. But they're all going to start expiring soon and I'm not going to be able to farm the revives in the future so I was banking on being able to do it over the next couple of days.

What am I doing wrong? How am I already this dead and I'm not even close to him yet? How do you effectively kill champs like Annihilus and Vision Arkus who have long evaded me. Even simple champs I know how to defeat are moving like freaking lightning.

Comments

magnus_xix

Use Doom for those last 3 fights then reassess where you’re at. It may not be as bad as it seems. Also could you show you're roster so we can help you out with your team composition

Usagicassidy

Use Doom for those last 3 fights then reassess where you’re at. It may not be as bad as it seems. Also could you show you're roster so we can help you out with your team composition

My idea was to save Doom completely for the Grandmaster fight, and then to swap *someone* out for Juggernaut in the character select node for Grandmaster's reverse controls.

Boogaloogler

Use Doom for those last 3 fights then reassess where you’re at. It may not be as bad as it seems. Also could you show you're roster so we can help you out with your team composition
My idea was to save Doom completely for the Grandmaster fight, and then to swap *someone* out for Juggernaut in the character select node for Grandmaster's reverse controls.

Why? You already plan to revive alot. Push on

Usagicassidy

Okay now I'm there and instantly killed my Doom and my Juggernaut because I kept getting tokens of blunder. How am I supposed to NOT dex, and only medium attack? Meanwhile he's rushing in and doing chip damage to me.

I never even got to have him throw his special not even once so I could practice/get a feel for it.

I honestly feel like this is a fight I'm going to have to practice a lot - I just have to spend 30 minutes fighting even getting to him. Oh well.

GroundedWisdom

Intercept is your new best friend. 😉 You'll get there.

mattress

Okay now I'm there and instantly killed my Doom and my Juggernaut because I kept getting tokens of blunder. How am I supposed to NOT dex, and only medium attack? Meanwhile he's rushing in and doing chip damage to me.

I never even got to have him throw his special not even once so I could practice/get a feel for it.

I honestly feel like this is a fight I'm going to have to practice a lot - I just have to spend 30 minutes fighting even getting to him. Oh well.

I'm in the same boat. I can do tenacity path fairly easily but GM smoked all my Champs at full health. Only got him down to 50% with most of my rev +pots(didn't use units). Doesn't help the inputs are jacked

My plan is to just practice while I rebuild my stash and farm units. And like GW said above, a lot of the fight is intercepting,which I'm not the best at

Usagicassidy

Intercept is your new best friend. 😉 You'll get there.

Yeah I thought I was getting better at intercepting - I’ve been trying it more and more in regular fights to great success. But he would just not let me intercept. Also how do you intercept without also using dexterity? It just doesn’t make sense to me

Keltan

I actually spend 1.2k units just to reach TB. You are so close don't give up. If you can't farm revives, farm units. Will help you

Jack2634

keep pushing man. with your team , Gm won't be that hard with your team setup. I used to fight these creep with double the PI back in the days , so i believe you can also made it out alive !

Usagicassidy

keep pushing man. with your team , Gm won't be that hard with your team setup. I used to fight these creep with double the PI back in the days , so i believe you can also made it out alive !

I mean - I even switched to a much more powerfully stacked team and I’m still getting my butt handed to me

But thanks for the encouragement!

Usagicassidy

I actually spend 1.2k units just to reach TB. You are so close don't give up. If you can't farm revives, farm units. Will help you

I’ve got the 19 revives in my inventory plus another 24 I’ve farmed. Specifically for this. But I don’t want to just start dumping a bunch of revives on him when I haven’t even gotten past a simple Competency/Blunder phase yet. I haven’t even been able to practice against his SP1 - cause I’ve never gotten to that point.

I’m trying to practice a bit to get a handle on him but I’m not even getting past the first 10 seconds of a fight. They ban dexterity and light hits and it’s just over for me.

And of course with the revive farming method disappearing I really was hoping this was my chance.

I know most would say I have way too stacked of a roster and everyone else did it with much less. But I’m just not that good you guys. But literally the rest of act 6 didn’t feel too bad to me. Heck I did most of 6.3 and 6.4 in a day.

MR_61088

When you study a ton of videos, why you didn‘t even understand the first phase?

You build greentokens by light intercepting him.

Then you have to work yourself through the bans.
Let the first ban be mediums. Then parry then dex. After the sp1 he is wounded.
But really you can‘t fight the GM like normal fight and with only 40 revives this doesn‘t look like you will made it.
But move on. You are in the fight now. Learn and understand. Maybe you still can get it done

Badah

@Usagicassidy , don’t give up. The first time I did that fight, I brute forced it until I started learning it… It took me more than 60 farmed revives plus 2k units. And the 2nd time I did it- in my alt account- it wasn’t any better (think I even spent more revives and units, because I didn’t have anyone immune to reverse controls). So, take a 15 min break once in a while to catch some fresh air and you’ll be fine.

PS: 99,9% of the players who have beaten the GM got wrecked in their first attempt.

You asked how can you intercept without dex? In my case I only tried to intercept when he was very far away from me and started to dash in. The intercepts aren’t mandatory in the first phase, but you deal extra damage if you are able to intercept, so don’t worry too much about it

Usagicassidy

When you study a ton of videos, why you didn‘t even understand the first phase?

I can watch as many videos as I can, as many times as I want, but it’s different than actually playing it.

These videos are from guys who are really good. They make following the prompts look easy.

When I’m actually in the fight, everything’s happening so fast - it’s not that I don’t understand it, it’s that I’m just not getting it right. Either I blunder or I try to not do what’s restricted and get attacked hard by him. I just wanna keep practicing but I don’t want to start using revives/units until I feel like I actually know what I’m doing.

Boogaloogler

Okay now I'm there and instantly killed my Doom and my Juggernaut because I kept getting tokens of blunder. How am I supposed to NOT dex, and only medium attack? Meanwhile he's rushing in and doing chip damage to me.

I never even got to have him throw his special not even once so I could practice/get a feel for it.

I honestly feel like this is a fight I'm going to have to practice a lot - I just have to spend 30 minutes fighting even getting to him. Oh well.

Time to learn the "Domino Method". When he dashes at you, dash back before the dex window, then immediately medium attack. You can find a rhythm where if you wait a split second before dashing back after you medium attack, 9 times out of 10 he'll swing on you again. Once you find the rhythm, it's just medium, dash back, medium, dash back on repeat

Boogaloogler

Another thing you can try is dashing back with your left thumb instead of your right. When you use your right thumb, there's a split second before your champions dashes back where they throw up their block. This interaction can greatly affect how the AI responds. They're less likely to dash in at you while you're blocking

Usagicassidy

That’s helpful thanks @Boogaloogler

I don’t think I’ve ever dashed back and then just “hit”. Without trying to rush in or parry or anything like that.

Honestly, even Anihilus and Arkus are giving me so much grief on these nodes. Anihilus obliterated my Doom. Nobody obliterates my Doom he’s like the easiest champion to defeat people.

Viking_St3v3

My team was Herc, sunspot, Claire (sunspot shuts down annulus with this synergy), Kitty and Tigra. Then for GM I swapped in Emma for claire (Emma, gets kitty immunity to reverse controls and tigra once kitty has 10 prowess she goes unblockable when phased)

Claire make sure you only do 4 hit combos on the path so she stays in her bleed immunity mode and only use SP2 as she health steals. I Used her a lot.

Vision Arkus is a pain I agree. I herc’d him. Same for Carnage. Used claire for CMM. And kitty periodically.

The GM. Yeah it sucks and you have to practice. Both the path to minimize reviving and the GM to get used to him. The challenge is most of the videos out there are pretty old. I do think with the current AI that kabam says is unchanged, the GM is way more aggressive than in any video I have seen. I got into a rhythm in his first phase of trying to leave parry until last. That way I could attack him with heavies and medium attacks to push him and give myself space for when he launched the SP1. That was the hardest part for me. I wanted him as far away as possible so I could have as long a window as possible to dex the SP1. The 3 after were easy if I got the first part down. I used Herc A ton and once I got the GM wounded the first time the damage was crazy so it gave me hope. My final attempt came when I got the GM wounded my first try. That is when I pushed through. It was still long. Revived 23 times about 1100 units on potions and got it right enough to get it done. But I practiced the path like 15-20 times and the GM like 10 times before I committed to the kill.

Usagicassidy

My team was Herc, sunspot, Claire (sunspot shuts down annulus with this synergy), Kitty and Tigra. Then for GM I swapped in Emma for claire (Emma, gets kitty immunity to reverse controls and tigra once kitty has 10 prowess she goes unblockable when phased)

I didn’t want to quote the entire long message, since those are annoying to see in the thread but I wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for ALL of the info. I was going to concentrate mostly on using Doom (since he blocks well, can withstand some damage, and has easy access to a DOT effect) and then Juggernaut at the end for reverse controls.

BUT I do have all of the characters that you mentioned on your team besides Tigra so I’m gonna try a few times. I only *just* pulled Emma tho as a 5* so the only thing she’d do is be on the roster for Kitty.

And I agree about him seeming WAY more aggressive than any video I’ve seen.

Usagicassidy

Thanks @Viking_St3v3 for the BWCV+Sunspot tip - making Anihilus *partially* easier.

He’s definitely more manageable. But with his “aggressive” mode and this ridiculously fast AI that they “swear” isn’t any different - I can’t even evade his basic attacks when he goes in to attack me. Any other champion I can swipe swipe swipe back to evade but with him I’m always taking like the 4th and 5th hit. I hate him.

After loosing my Claire with about 50% health on him left I tried Sunspot but he still used the obliterated debuffs on me and was unstoppable throughout the fight so he KO’d me and I only clipped a little bit of his health off. Jesus he feels harder than most of the bosses in 6.3

Viking_St3v3

^^^^ leaving the quote out for the same reason! You are welcome. It was not ever truly easy. But prepped for like a month for that fight. I only committed when I felt good, had the resources and the time. If it went bad early I quit. If the path was not going well, I quit. I still died on the path. I was okay with using 1 team revive on the path and that was it. If I thought I might need more then I quit. Reality is that I was only ever going to use 2 champs for the GM. Herc for most of it and Kitty for the reverse controls. But the reality was, I entered the reverse controls stage with Herc. The phase is not entirely reverse so you can play a lot of it. I got used to the reverse when it happened so I never subbed out because of herc immortality. He was buffer when I messed up.

Viking_St3v3

Thanks @Viking_St3v3 for the BWCV+Sunspot tip - making Anihilus *partially* easier.

Oh yeah he still sucks. You have intercept him early to get the slow. Then keep looking to see when it runs out. I was using that synergy to deal with him well before I was at this point in the game so I was familiar with the timing.

Usagicassidy

Reality is that I was only ever going to use 2 champs for the GM. Herc for most of it and Kitty for the reverse controls. But the reality was, I entered the reverse controls stage with Herc. The phase is not entirely reverse so you can play a lot of it. I got used to the reverse when it happened so I never subbed out because of herc immortality. He was buffer when I messed up.

Does herc go into the immortality phase every time you revive him? I hadn’t thought about using him but that sounds very useful. Did you use him a lot on the path to grandmaster to gain charges?

But how did you apply the damage over time effects portion of the grandmaster with Hercules?

Usagicassidy

Okay now I'm there and instantly killed my Doom and my Juggernaut because I kept getting tokens of blunder. How am I supposed to NOT dex, and only medium attack? Meanwhile he's rushing in and doing chip damage to me.

I never even got to have him throw his special not even once so I could practice/get a feel for it.

I honestly feel like this is a fight I'm going to have to practice a lot - I just have to spend 30 minutes fighting even getting to him. Oh well.
Time to learn the "Domino Method". When he dashes at you, dash back before the dex window, then immediately medium attack. You can find a rhythm where if you wait a split second before dashing back after you medium attack, 9 times out of 10 he'll swing on you again. Once you find the rhythm, it's just medium, dash back, medium, dash back on repeat

Been practicing the "domino method" but generally they're too far away and I just hit into the air. Or they just keep beating me and I take a ton of health.

Viking_St3v3

Reality is that I was only ever going to use 2 champs for the GM. Herc for most of it and Kitty for the reverse controls. But the reality was, I entered the reverse controls stage with Herc. The phase is not entirely reverse so you can play a lot of it. I got used to the reverse when it happened so I never subbed out because of herc immortality. He was buffer when I messed up.
Does herc go into the immortality phase every time you revive him? I hadn’t thought about using him but that sounds very useful. Did you use him a lot on the path to grandmaster to gain charges?

But how did you apply the damage over time effects portion of the grandmaster with Hercules?

Yes he does. His burst does not occur. But it’s all about getting the GM wounded to do serious damage. Have you got him wounded yet? Once is good for a solid 500k or more of damage. High crit champs are good too. But herc for survivability.

Usagicassidy

Reality is that I was only ever going to use 2 champs for the GM. Herc for most of it and Kitty for the reverse controls. But the reality was, I entered the reverse controls stage with Herc. The phase is not entirely reverse so you can play a lot of it. I got used to the reverse when it happened so I never subbed out because of herc immortality. He was buffer when I messed up.
Does herc go into the immortality phase every time you revive him? I hadn’t thought about using him but that sounds very useful. Did you use him a lot on the path to grandmaster to gain charges?

But how did you apply the damage over time effects portion of the grandmaster with Hercules?
Yes he does. His burst does not occur. But it’s all about getting the GM wounded to do serious damage. Have you got him wounded yet? Once is good for a solid 500k or more of damage. High crit champs are good too. But herc for survivability.

He's so aggressive I haven't even had a Special 1 activity yet. I have yet to get him to launch a special at me.

Viking_St3v3

He's so aggressive I haven't even had a Special 1 activity yet. I have yet to get him to launch a special at me.

Are you getting all 3 tactics banned? Does not matter what order you do them in for phase one. Light attacks, parry and dex. But once you get one of them banned you can’t do it again
Or you will get a blunder. Too many of those and he goes to the SP3 and you’re dead. Once all 3 are banned he gets his bar of power and will launch his special. You have to dex the beam as it’s unblockable. Then I each shot of the 3 part requires either a block, dex or to get hit by it. Then he gets wounded and then the real damage happens.

There are a ton of videos out there about the 3 phases, his specials and what occurs and what you need to do.

Prismane1269

Just use White mag pre-fight synergy, easy passive stun.

Also this path is a joke to Sunspot+200% power boost.
Aarkush can easily be taken with doom, same goes for Annihilus.
Get a clear idea abt GM’s all phases from Jason Voorches YT channel, before going into the fight.

Some champs that will help u to defeat gm with ease-
Kitty or *Kitty+tigra synergy (Best against GM so far, IMO)
Doom
Juggernaut
Herc
Ultron
Warlock
Apocalypse
Prof X
Nf
Bwcv not bad
Or any champs with high Crit dmg.

Phantomfire500

I've been studying countless videos, trying to get a grasp of how the Grandmaster fight would be. And I also know that perhaps I'll have to do a few practices before I really even start to get it down.

But that means going through THE REST of 6.4.6 just to get to him. And I am doing *terribly*

I farmed a TON of revives for Grandmaster so that I would be good and ready when the time came that I thought I could actually beat him. But they're all going to start expiring soon and I'm not going to be able to farm the revives in the future so I was banking on being able to do it over the next couple of days.

What am I doing wrong? How am I already this dead and I'm not even close to him yet? How do you effectively kill champs like Annihilus and Vision Arkus who have long evaded me. Even simple champs I know how to defeat are moving like freaking lightning.

Ebony Maw is who I used for the Aarkus, even a level 25 unawakened 6r1. 1 heavy and the fight is pretty much over, although awakened doom probably does better. Doom can do Annihilus though, even unawakened.

Bringing a white magneto for Annihilus and Aarkus is probably smart too.

Usagicassidy

He's so aggressive I haven't even had a Special 1 activity yet. I have yet to get him to launch a special at me.

Are you getting all 3 tactics banned? Does not matter what order you do them in for phase one. Light attacks, parry and dex. But once you get one of them banned you can’t do it again
Or you will get a blunder.

Does it ban them in the order you’re doing them? So if I start by parrying him a few times, it’ll ban parry. If I do 5 hit combo a couple times, I’ll ban light attacks. Then I can dex medium dex medium until he gains the bar and throws the special?