Act 6 Exploration - Review & Opening

I finally got around to exploring 6.2 this last week or two, having had 6.1,3,4 explored for a little while. I was waiting to see what the nerfs would be and how much difference it would make. I waited for the removal of Rogue from 6.2.6 and the EMP Modification removal from Sinister. I didn't actively wait for Mordo as that was last on my list anyway. I got through 2 extra paths before the 'nerf'.

Once the Champion nerf went live I got on with it. I actually enjoyed it this time around, the reduced attack damage made such a massive difference and not having to experience the joys of no retreat removed much of the trepidation hanging over this fight. It's certainly a fight that is still very skill based. If you screw up when he's got unblockable mediums it can be pretty challenging to get back into the fight, especially if your staggers fall off. The time that happened to me I had to back up to the wall and bait heavies to get back into it (I wasn't entirely successful in this endeavour). My neighbours also learnt new words on the final 10% of the death touch path.

6.2.1 - (Lifecycle) Itemless. Honestly there's not much BS. Sym Supreme can be heavy spammed in the corner for a huge portion of the fight because of his power gain mechanics. If you're using HT, slap the preflight on and it's over in less than a minute.
MVPs: Human Torch, AA, Hyperion

6.2.2 was so much better with the removal of EMP Modification. It's still a fairly limiting fight but there's enough counters now that make it a fairly easy one shot as long as you're patient - power gain is now your concern rather than simply leaking health. I got one shots with CMM, Warlock, G2099 and I managed 75% with Ultron.
MVPs: Ghost (paths), Warlock, Ultron/Vision, G2099, CMM

6.2.3 - 2 Revives, more laziness on my part than anything else.
MVPs: Ghost, CMM

6.2.4 - 3 Revives, same deal as 6.2.4.
MVPs: Aegon, Ghost

6.2.5 - All the revives. This entire quest is honestly the worst piece of content that I've played through. Mordo aside, the gated paths are all pretty counter intuitive.
Cosmic Gate: The Tech path for example may well have tech champions on them but the nodes around the champions would be fun (ish) to play with Science champions - it's full of regen and power gain and the two immunities required are Bleed and Incinerate. To my knowledge the only Bleed immune Cosmics at the time of release are Corvus and the Groots. There were no incinerate immunes, even now there's only Surfer and loosely speaking, CMM. You can fill your team with any Cosmics you want but the most important champion for this line is Void.
My team:CG, CMM, Venom, Hyperion, Void (All R5)

Tech Gate: Ghost was a massive MVP for me here. She dealt with AA, OR, ST, Domino (Debuff immune), Storm (No retreat). I took Doom as my 5th this time to deal with Mordo as he has spite and the power gain. This was a big mistake as I only had Sentinel to handle Cable's regen which is pretty hefty. I couldn't bring my Warlock as he's a 6*.
Team: Ghost, G2099, Sentinel, Guardian (R1 for the block synergy), Doom

Mutant Gate: This was pretty unpleasant. That Aegon starts to hit some disgusting numbers against your block unless you finish the fight quickly. Colossus did most of my heavy lifting on this path. Void handled Blade (regen), Thor (Buffet), Punisher (200% power gain and vigour (yay!).
Team: Colossus, OR, Emma, AA, Void

6* Gate: This was a weird quest. There's a 300% cornered node which is a bit of a red herring. Most of the best counters on this path aren't DoT champions. The only real one to watch out for is Magik. I'm fully aware that I am pretty lucky in my 6*
My team: Aegon, Gulk, Warlock, Ghost, Void

Challenging encounters across the ungated paths:
A - Electro. I used AA. He dealt with the fight with roughly 40% left.
B - Antman. Again, AA. If I hadn't eaten an Sp2 I'd have had roughly 60% left - finished on 15%. Venom - Hyperion destroys.
C - Completion path, can't remember.
D - Ultron. Has AoW. Just Ghost it. Dr Strange - 200% power gain (OFC), Ghost w/Hood. Also used for Drax.
E - BPCW. Ghost it - take a blocked hit, phase and have fun.
F - War Machine. 200% power gain. Magneto made short work of this, especially with his awesome block vs Metals. Sp3 and watch them bleed out. Sentinel is still one shot by a Magneto SP3.

Mordo: The problem with Mordo is that in half of the quests you're reduced to a one champion choice for the boss so you can't bring Ghost/Hood which is the easiest solution to the spite and cycling sp1/sp2 etc. Void is the single best counter to this Mordo, you have to slow play it and you need an early petrify to help keep a lid on the power gain. 2 petrifies negates spite and Mordo's own power gain. After this you can spend your time watching his health tick down and hitting into his block. If you're impatient, you can fight him, but be aware that after your first sp1, you need to throw some heavies and take a bit of block/parry to get that sp2 so only do this when you have at least one petrify or you're going to be treading dangerously close to an sp3. An R5 can eat his sp3 and survive but the block damage is high so I'd avoid if you can.
Alternative counters would be Torch, Doom (not too bad, I got 50% down in my best effort), Blade with synergies, Ghost w/Hood, maybe Quake (I don't have so I'm not really an expert), I had a lot of success with Wasp chipping him down.

The Strength in numbers has gone from being a totally stupid node to just a stupid node. You can get by with 1-2 deaths on the team now if you're using Void but obviously it's still not ideal.

Two biggest MVPs of this are easily Ghost and Void. With Ghost, if you phase one hit and immediately counter it counts as an intercept. Make sure that you do this for hits 11, 21, 31 etc. as it's going to remove 2 charges. There's a bit of finesse and rough maths involved with working out when you're allowed to safely end a fight without getting a massive slap of damage in the face.
Void is the MVP for Mordo hands down.

6.2.6 - 10 Revives, of which 5 were on the final Champion boss path with Death Touch. Honestly it's a pretty simple quest outside of the odd encounter, but none really justify the essay that Mordo required.

Loot next post as they're on my phone