Some advice for Act 8 first timers (from a mid level player)
I just finished act 8 for the very first time. I consider myself to be mid at best so maybe those who plan to try act 8 might want to read this. This isn’t thought to be the best way to go and others will have done it much better, but maybe you’re not as skilled as others so you have to try harder than them. The first run through the act took me about two weeks, some busy days, some off days.
In general: Act 8 is not as much a pain in the a$$ as act 6, but it’s at times tougher than act 7 and you should have a good roster, this includes a number of 7r1/r2 stars and 6r4/r5 stars. And there is a lot to read because the nodes are really complicated. Sometimes you have to read the nodes twice, some nodes can be ignored, some will be much nastier than you thought they would be.
Watching YouTube videos of the paths definitely helps, MCOC Encyclopedia sadly only did 8.1 including Scytalis, MCOC Noob did the entire act. But relatively often, their recommendations depend on certain champs in your roster. So always read the entire description before making up your mind. And often, fighting the first opponent of the paths helps to find out if the entire path is doable. Some paths cost me a team revive, others were a walk in the park. It often depends on your own champs and how well you play. For example, my 7r3 Serpent did most of the 8.4.6 standard path for me. Now most won’t have a 7r3 serpent in act 8 but you get the point: you may have your own MVP who might be a better option than a specific champ that’s only 6r2 and you don’t want to rank them up just for a fight. Sometimes a huge damage dealer or a tanky champ will help you get through annoying fights even if they are not the obvious choice.
In general, ranking up prowess champs before starting Act 8 is a good idea, they come in handy in various paths and boss fights. Besides, having Kingpin, an armor break cosmic with a decent relic and Silk available will help a lot for the later bosses.
On the bosses:
Scytalis was by far the easiest and also the most fun of the four chapter bosses. A prowess champ will help, I used Bishop. As with all the bosses, watching videos before trying out the fights helps you a lot, I can recommend Jason Vorhees among others.
Bahamet was tough but I found him easier than I thought he would be. But I totally relied on Kingpin who is made for this fight. So if you have a 6* KP, rank him up, he’s your MVP. Even a 5r5+ KP might be a better option than most if not all 6 stars or even 7 stars. With KP you need to get the timing right but you can ignore most of the rest. I tried Shang Chi as well (among others) but KP is simply the best option against Bahamet.
Cerastes was doable. CGR was my MVP, I brought in Odin for the boss fight. My Odin is 6r1, I never used him in a fight but his cross fight is great. By the way: white mags has a very handy pre fight ability that can help you a lot against opponents that are countering the stun debuff (or debuffs in general). He turns it into a passive stun for your heroes. Works wonders throughout the story quests, especially if you don’t have Kate Bishop.
I expected Glykhan to be easier than Bahamet but to be honest, he cost me countless revives. I nearly had to invest units, luckily I was stacked before entering the fight. I had a 7r3 Serpent with 95K health in the team, storm X and Bishop (both 7r1) and my damage queen White tiger (7r3) but my MVP was 6r4+ Silk who really saved me in phase 3. Her auto evade against specials is a cheat code in phase 3 when you can’t get away from the opponent. Equip her with a Hulk relic and she will take Glykhan down.
The hardest phase was phase 2 when you have to bring him to his second special and you don’t know which one he will use. I often could not get the timing right and lost champs without dealing any damage. This is where I had to adapt and started baiting his heavy instead of the special. This takes time but you can reliably hurt him easier, at least I did. His heavy is easy to evade, you have to manage the block damage when baiting the heavy but it’s an alternative if you’re having a hard time evading the specials.
Funnily enough, the second toughest boss of act 8 after Glykhan was Joe Fixit. He was extremely hard to kill and his specials are hard to evade.
In hindsight, none of the bosses of act 8 were as annoying as the act 6 Grandmaster, the act 6.2 champion or act 7.4 Kang. So if you defeated them and you have enough revives, you’ll succeed.
These were just my two cents. Other players will definitely disagree and those with more skill will have less problems defeating Glykhan but maybe this will help some aspiring players.
By the way: finishing act 8 gives to lots of rank up stuff for 6 stars, I’d put the stuff in champs that aren’t (yet) available as 7 stars (like Herc, Hulkling, Kingpin, Kate Bishop or AA, to name a few).
