Welp, this is it. Final EOP challenge before I put this forum account back into hibernation. Let's see how this last ride goes!
The Squad:7* R4 sig 200 Onslaught with 6* sinister relic
7* R4 sig 200 Vox with 6* thor relic
7* R3 sig 120 Serpent with 5* ms marvel relic
7* R4 sig 40 Count Nefaria with 7* thing relic
7* R3 unduped Bullseye with 6* bullseye relic
The Stash:9243 units
30 L1 revives
45 L2 revives
18 L3 revives
11 L2 team revives
About 35 L5 potions and 25 L3 potions
1940 free crystals
Masteries and Boosts:Same as usual, willpower with no suicides. Max despair is a MUST for Absorbing Man. Ran this thing unboosted, was going for a practice run initially but after getting through Aegon I decided to commit to the full thing.
Time to go to war with a god (again)!
Fight: Hulkling
My Pick: Bullseye
Deaths: 0
Stupid easy fight, Bullseye has crits through block and also has a stun on his sp2 that goes through block for some reason. Additionally, the counter evade can save you if you do get hit. Heavy counter the heavy attack or sp2 to remove protection, then spam sp2 into block and win.
Fight: Absorbing Man
My Pick: Count Nefaria
Deaths: 0
Very long, but very safe fight. Nefaria's energy build up debuffs turn off the healing via the despair mastery so just play around the unstoppable. Heavy counter his specials when he enters a refined form to remove it, and make sure you use your heavy attack to cycle around his resistances.
Fight: Infamous Iron Man
My Pick: Onslaught
Deaths: 0
DO NOT USE A CHARACTER WITH 3 OR MORE UNIQUE BUFFS. Push to sp2 has much as possible, then knock him down with a heavy attack after his specials to prevent the damage. Take advantage of the fury from dashing in to juice things up and deal some BIG degen damage.
Fight: Onslaught
My Pick: Serpent
Deaths: 0
Bit of a tricky one since you can't punish heavy attacks for openings. Intercept like a god, and DO NOT PARRY or else you lose your willpower healing for the rest of the fight. Know how to evade AND punish the sp1, it will save you resources and your sanity. Be ready for very uncooperative AI here.
Fight: Jessica Jones
My Pick: Bullseye
Deaths: 0
Bullseye has guaranteed crits on everything so just don't get hit and play around the protections. Very trivial.
Fight: Jabari Panther
My Pick: Serpent
Deaths: 0
Bit tricky to set up, but once you get things going this fight is stupid easy. Get a special attack, then make sure you throw it while you don't have staggers on you or else you lose your true focus. Dex and stay away from Jabari to remove any staggers on you beforehand. Once you get the true focus the fight becomes a joke. Spam light ending combos to prevent the cleanse and use the stagger debuffs for free healing.
Fight: Nebula
My Pick: Vox
Deaths: 0
Start by dexing 6 times so you can counter the auto block, then go in and start swinging. Throw a sp1 for the undermine and you won't have to worry about the auto block again. Mind the unblockable and root, and try to minimize your parries since they nullify a buff on you and cause you to take damage.
Fight: Northstar
My Pick: Onslaught
Deaths: 0
Onslaught's neuroshocks counter the miss, so just make sure you throw specials after dashing or punishing a special and you'll be good. Ramp like normal and blow him up with the enhanced degens from power shield, though do be careful of Northstar's janky animations.
Fight: Destroyer
My Pick: Nefaria
Deaths: 0
Stupidly easy fight, parry the last hit of the sp1 to apply the energy vulnerability. Worst case scenario if he does get the power gain just make sure you are in ionic overcharge and you'll pretty much completely counter it. Try not to get the unblockable buff to prevent the rupture damage and you'll be good to go.
Fight: Photon
My Pick: Bullseye, finished with Vox
Deaths: 1
This fight can be a pain. Dump your special attacks before reaching 3 bars, then light attack into her block once to slow your power gain and wait out the stage fright timer. Bullseye completely counters the miss, however Photon is bleed immune and pure light form still sucks. Heal up on this one so you can tank more special damage on the block. Took off 60% with Bullseye before using Vox to clean house.
Fight: Adam Warlock
My Pick: Vox
Deaths: 0
BRING A CHARACTER WITH 3 OR MORE BUFFS. Vox is immune to power drain and special lock so throwing special attacks is a non issue. Drop a special or heavy attack after Adam's specials to apply the soul barb, remember you can heavy counter Adam's sp1 by dashing in and blocking the beam hits. Do not intercept with a medium attack or you're dead.
Fight: Aegon
My Pick: Onslaught
Deaths: 0 (barely)
Easily the worst fight in this gauntlet, however I got stupidly cooperative AI and managed to solo this somehow. Intercept to prevent the crits and unblockable, and block hits while the reinforce is active to remove the cement charges and prevent the root. Try to drop heavy attacks after Aegon throws a special, you can heavy counter the sp2 so push for that as much as possible. Getting hit while the reinforce isn't active will pretty much kill you, be ready to die a LOT here.
Fight: Cassie Lang
My Pick: Serpent
Deaths: 0
Drop a special attack for the true focus and you pretty much win the fight. Cassie is coldsnap immune so make sure you are dropping sp2s once you get the true focus up. Mind the power stings and crush and you'll smash through this one easy.
Fight: Gwenpool
My Pick: Onslaught
Deaths: 0
Stupidly easy if you know how to deal with inverted controls, just don't get hit by a special attack and drop your specials while the prowess is active for big damage.
Fight: Iron Fist
My Pick: Onslaught
Deaths: 0
This one is very niche since you can't gain buffs or apply debuffs. Even with a counter things can be quite annoying, make sure you heal up so you can take more blocked hits. All of Onslaught's damaging effects are passives so he gets around the buff and debuff prevention easily. Mind the pressure gauge node, heavy punish any special attacks, and you'll be good.
Fight: Toad
My Pick: Vox
Deaths: 0
Intercept to remove the prowess, bait sp1 and play around the root and inverted controls. Do not corner Toad or he'll start regenerating like crazy.
Fight: Heimdall
My Pick: Vox
Deaths: 0
Vox's undermine counters the auto block, so just smack Heimdall during his heavy animation to remove the unstoppable, then dump sp1s to deal big damage. Don't worry about trying to pull the degens back too much, there's a lot to watch out for and you'll still deal good damage anyways. Bait sp1 and you'll be good, remember that this is pre-buff Heimdall which makes things way easier.
Fight: Prowler
My Pick: Serpent
Deaths: 0
Heal up for this one as you'll take a lot of damage from the power drain. Bring a miss counter to make things way easier. Serpent's true focus and power gain makes it easy to alternate specials and prevent the indestructible, and the power drain ramps his charges up like crazy.
Fight: Spider Ham
My Pick: Serpent
Deaths: 0
The trick is to be bad at the game and get hit, which normally isn't good but somehow worked for me. I got smacked with a combo, but it put a lot of power stings on me so I was able to constantly reflect the damage by dumping the correct special attack. Use Serpent's true focus to counter the evade and this one isn't too bad, he's also heal block immune so you get free healing from willpower here.
Fight: Viv Vision
My Pick: Serpent
Deaths: 0
The power drain ramps your charges like crazy, bait sp1 and use the true focus to stop the evade. Such a balanced character, this Serpent guy, eh?
Fight: Annihilus
My Pick: Vox
Deaths: 0
BRING A CHARACTER WITH 3 OR MORE BUFFS. Reparry like crazy and try not to dash back to prevent the unstoppable. Bait sp1 and parry the last hit and you'll be good to go.
Fight: Mole Man
My Pick: Onslaught
Deaths: 0
Bit of a janky fight. Heavy counter Mole Man's heavy and specials to keep your neuroshocks paused, it is very unlikely you'll be able to get the sp2 before you get power drained so just spam sp1s and let the neuroshocks deal the damage. Bait specials ASAP so you don't get rekt by the spite node, and mind the stun immunity and bubble shield.
Fight: Dani Moonstar
My Pick: Serpent
Deaths: 0
If you can evade the sp2 consistently anyone can do this one. Keep in mind that Serpent can't activate true focus here so play around the falter and try not to parry too much.
Fight: Tigra
My Pick: Nefaria
Deaths: 0
Parry the last hit of TIgra's specials for the energy vulnerability, and try and stay in ionic overcharge as much as possible since it gives you ridiculous physical resistance to counter any ruptures. Spam heavy attacks to push her back and prevent the neutralize and you'll be okay.
Fight: Ares
My Pick: The whole damn team
Deaths: 8
Should've been less expensive, but had some bad playing and terrible AI. Pay attention to the visual cues for his special attacks and you'll slug through this eventually. Use my Ares guide here for specifics:
https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/389334/assaulting-ares-how-to-beat-the-toughest-boss-weve-seen-in-mcoc-in-years#latestUsed Vox for most of this fight since his cruelties and precisions make you hit stupid hard. Spam sp3 since Ares doesn't take damage from red numbers. After throwing the remainder of the team at Ares, I team revived to slug through the last phase.
And that's it! Bit more tricky than the hero objective for me, but it was still a hell of a way to end these challenges off!
The Final Cost:1 team revive
About 25 L5 potions and all of my L3 potions healing people up as I went
About an hour and a half of my day
The Rewards:Pulled Kindred and Jabari from my greater empowered crystals. Eh.
Saving the 3-4 gem for now, might take up someone like Karolina somewhere down the line.
Pulled a 4-5 mystic gem, currently torn between using it on Nico, Shathra or Hood. Any advice would be appreciated.
And of course, got the first appearance Maestro at ascension 2 now. Not bad.
Final Thoughts and Tips:1.
RUN THIS THING BOOSTED. Only reason I didn't was because I initially went in just for practice and only committed to it later on.
2.
DO MORE THINGS LIKE THIS KABAM. Fun challenges like these, with a
LARGE VARIETY of different options and approaches, are exactly what we need in content nowadays. Also would not be opposed if these Carina Challenges came out a bit more often.
3. Is there any chance we can get some more Vox appreciation around here? They put in WORK on a lot of these fights and is just a great champion nearly everywhere.
4. No, I will NOT R4 Serpent, at least not before R5 champs become much more common. Consider it silent protest against his absolutely childish champion design on attack and especially on defence.
Grootman is now sleepy again and will be returning to hibernation until the next big challenge arrives. Thanks for reading, and until Kabam wakes me again, hope this helped y'all!
