More permanent endgame content = More guides. Guess I'm back covering my time in the Reunion Crucible! A couple quick things before we jump into it:
1. Because of the large number of fights on each path, this will be a VERY long post. Thus, please do everyone a favor and DO NOT REPLY TO THE ENTIRE POST. You can reply to sections of it if you need to, but don't make everyone scroll for 2 years trying to find a specific reply.
2. My stash has been very bloated as of late and I got revives ready to expire, so I decided to make things a little harder to try and empty the stash a bit more. Normally, you can use the same champ on different paths in this quest (ie. I can use 6* herc only once for one path, but I can bring him in again one more time on the other path). What I decided to do is try and complete BOTH paths without using the same champ more than once, so this means I can only use herc once on either of my paths. This means that I need over 60 unique champs to try and beat this challenge, which definitely spices things up a bit. Obviously, you don't have to do this, but with the 10th anniversary of the game coming I wanted to try and use as many different champs as possible!
So on that note, let's get into it!
The Stash
5038 units
20 L2 revives plus 12 in the stash (4 of them were going to expire today if I hadn't used them)
16 L1 revives
Max stacks of L3 and L4 potions plus a huge load in the stash, and 21 L5 potions
Couple of the big 1 hour attack, health and champion boosters
Masteries: Just a pretty basic setup with no suicides, had willpower, max despair and pacify as well as 3/5 MD and a few points in deep wounds
Journey to Gwenmaster (Path 1)
Fight: Yondu
My champ: 7* R1 sig 20 deathless guilly, no relic
Revives: 0
Super masochism doesn't reflect your degen debuffs, but it will reflect your stuns. Do not parry, bait heavies, try and intercept to get the foresight fury, bait sp1, win. Not a bad fight with most champs.
Fight: BWDO
My champ: 6* R4 sig 120 shocker, 3* goblin relic
Revives: 1
This fight is annoying because of the constant block damage you have to take. Spam reparry and then dex to stun BW and get your damage in. The pacify mastery can also turn the nodes off which can be very annoying. With shocker, try to ramp your charges, then charge an explosive heavy while she's stunned to take advantage of stun vulnerability. Died here from block damage, bring in a higher rank champ or someone with excellent block proficiency for a nice solo.
Fight: Claire Voyant
My champ: 6* R4 sig 20 she hulk, 3* ant man relic
Revives: 0
Nothing really special here. Keep your slow up to counter footloose, bait her specials to get your furies ramped, win. Very easy with a slow or nullify champ.
Fight: Venom
My champ: 7* R2 sig 20 terrax, 4* ms marvel relic
Revives: 0
Terrax is bleed immune so this fight was a cakewalk. Try and intercept to get foresight for a nice bonus. Nothing much to say here if you have a bleed immune.
Fight: Green Goblin
My champ: 7* R1 unduped stark spidey, no relic
Revives: 0
Starky has a guaranteed stun on his sp1, so with power reserve and redlining you can basically stun lock this guy to death. Even without this he isn't hard outside of the special damage so play well and you'll be fine.
Fight: Rhino
My champ: 7* R2 unduped masacre, 4* WS relic
Revives: 0
This one's one of the more niche fights. Unless you have concussion, disorient, enervate or taunt on him, you can't knock him down or else you'll die. He also has power shield as well which makes it annoying to deal damage without a proper counter. Good thing masacre can just sp2 into block and never knock rhino down. Get the bat ignited and the incinerates can also help take him down. Alternatively, you can just use sp1 and refresh the incinerates to deal damage since it applies disorient on the first hit. Quite a simple one, though it can definitely catch some people.
Fight: Red Hulk
My champ: 6* R4 sig 60 zemo, 5* valk relic
Revives: 0
Buffet can be a bit scary, but you have foresight again to help you deal damage. Alternatively, just get zemo's bleeds going and you can counter it with despair or just straight up outdamage it. Blocking hits gives you disorient which can also be cleansed, which makes zemo really good for this one. Buff immune or regen reversal champs will also work well here.
Fight: Hulkbuster
My champ: 7* R1 sig 40 surfer, 3* ms marvel relic
Revives: 0
Surfer doesn't take shock damage so this one is not bad at all. Your buffs also trigger dulled which in turn prevents spiked armor so no more fun and interactive damage. Use surfer normally and bait sp1, bit of a long one but very straightforward. Any champ with a good amount of buffs can work here.
Fight: Aarkus
My champ: 7* R1 unduped sorcerer supreme, no relic
Revives: 0
This one needs a bit of management, but is quite easy. Spam sp1 to nullify his power gain, and use your heavy to rotate blessings and stay away from the power steal one since it gives aarkus loads of power gain buffs. With other champs, mind the coldsnap and bait sp1 while taking advantage of power shield. Not too bad.
Fight: Hela
My champ: 6* R4 sig 100 ascended archangel, no relic
Revives: 0
Archangel does archangel things. Joke of a fight with anyone, spam heavy and win.
Fight: Juggernaut
My champ: 7* R1 sig 20 joe fixit, no relic
Revives: 0
Another easy one if you pay attention to the furies and remove them so you don't degenerate. Keep in mind that joe fixit's disorient can turn the fury node off which can be annoying, but it's not too bad. A chill fight with any poison immune.
Fight: Weapon X
My champ: 7* R2 sig 60 shuri, 3* HB relic
Revives: 0
A pretty standard weapon X fight. Poison champs will destroy him but shuri and her shocks work well here too. Mind your untouchable since it will make him go unstoppable and that's basically it.
Fight: Electro Luke
My champ: 7* R2 unduped havok, 6* storm relic
Revives: 0
You will be faltered every 10 combo so watch out, aside from that this fight just needs an electro counter. He has luke's indestructible and electro's special animations so play around that and it's not bad.
Fight: Punishing Angel
My champ: 7* R3 unduped venom, 6* venom relic
Revives: 0
Play around mercy and bring in someone with high rank or good block proficiency, fight is easy after that.
Fight: Nightcarnage
My pick: 6* R4 sig 80 diablo, no relic
Revives: 0
Poison turns off the energy adoption node, from there just parry and 3 combo so he doesn't evade. However, your regen rate is completely reversed so try not to use specials too much with diablo. Pretty easy with any shock immune (NOT RESISTANT) or poison champ
Fight: Spider Witch
My pick: 6* R5 sig 200 ascended iDoom, 4* HB relic
Revives: 0
Bring a champ who either doesn't crit or is immune to incinerate and ideally poison. Since iDoom doesn't crit he turns off backblast as well as spider witch's sig ability which makes it substantially easier. I forgot that she can also evade though so this was a slower one. Watch the inverted controls during specials and you'll be fine.
Fight: Ice Phoenix
My pick: 7* R1 unduped colossus, no relic
Revives: 0
Bring a coldsnap immune or you're starting again. Mind her ice armor as well. This fight originally had encroaching stun but has been changed to encroaching root for this challenge which makes it much less punishing. Not bad once you get into it.
Fight: Gwenperion
My pick: 7* R1 unduped elsa, no relic
Revives: 0
Time for another potential roadblock. You need champs with good uptime on shock, incinerate or passive heal block or else she will constantly heal to full. She gets loads of power gain but she also can't use sp3 so that makes things ridiculously easier. With elsa, mind your reloads and make sure to use your second medium to incinerate before the timer expires. Very easy fight otherwise.
Fight: Mole man
My pick: 6* R4 sig 20 ascended apoc, no relic
Revives: 0
Apoc turns off mole man's purify, spam heavies to take advantage of bleed vulnerability, ramp up your debuffs and it's an easy one. Anyone can technically do this one in a pinch though.
Fight: Red magneto
My pick: 7* R2 unduped titania, 3* spidey 2099 relic
Revives: 0
This magneto has spite and unblockable specials, so bait sp1 and try to use a buff immune champ here. Watch your moth charges and don't let them reach 0 and you'll have this in the bag.
Fight: Modok
My pick: 6* R4 sig 60 white magneto, no relic
Revives: 0
Modok is metal so white mags basically turns him off. Don't hit his block, and watch out for the disorients. Auto block counters will work great here as well.
Fight: Guardian
My pick: 7* R1 adam warlock, 3* thor relic
Revives: 0
Power shield is a thing here, so bring an armor break, nullify, unblockable or auto block counter or else he'll auto block all of your specials. Aside from that this fight isn't hard
Fight: White magneto
My pick: 7* R1 unduped storm X, no relic
Revives: 2
Bring a prowess champ and this one isn't too bad, though do be aware that his sp1 is unblockable and can absolutely wreck you if you mess up the evade, hence why I used 2 revives here. Push to sp2 as much as possible and you'll be good
Fight: Tigra
My pick: 7* R1 unduped gwen, no relic
Revives: 0
This one is a joke. Heavy spam and win.
Fight: VTD
My pick: 7* R3 unduped juggernaut, 5* juggernaut relic
Revives: 0
Bring a champion with lots of crits since that's the only way you can deal damage. Mind the unblockable and you'll be good. Juggs normally isn't a great counter for this but his damage is so massive it honestly didn't matter.
Fight: Hit monkey
My pick: 6* R4 sig 200 ascended abs man, no relic
Revives: 0
Made a mistake here and forgot abs man was a mercenary, so hit monkey reduces his defensive ability accuracy which can prevent your parries. Use heavies as much as possible, play around the stances, then try and kill him while the lifecycle shield is down.
Fight: Punisher 2099
My pick: 7* R3 sig 120 guardian, 5* HB relic
Revives: 0
Bring anyone who can take the special damage on the block and this one is a piece of cake. With guardian, use sp1, then push him to sp2 so you can drop your sp2 and nuke.
Fight: Nova
My pick: 6* R4 sig 140 tigra, no relic
Revives: 0
A buff control champ is nice, but the fight is doable without. Dex his specials and try to power lock him as much as possible. Nothing too special otherwise.
Fight: Ibom
My pick: 7* R1 unduped overseer, no relic
Revives: 0 (barely)
This fight can be tricky. Bring a poison immune and play around meltdown and hurt locker to the best of your ability. Power gain can also be very helpful if you can bring it. With overseer, kinetic transference massively fuels your rampup so enter cosmic mode and go crazy.
Fight: Man thing
My pick: 7* R2 unduped og hulk, 4* hulk relic
Revives: 0
This one isn't bad, bring a strong damage dealer who is poison immune and try to kill him before flare kills you. Do not bring incinerate, shock or coldsnap champs as he will gain loads of power.
Fight: Void
My pick: 6* R4 sig 80 black cat, 4* BW relic
Revives: 0 (barely)
This void has safeguard, so bring dot effects and don't knock him down unless you have 6 or more debuffs on him. A debuff cleanser or champ with extended combos will also be helpful to deal with void's fun and interactive damage. A bit scary, but not too terrible otherwise.
Fight: Platinumpool
My pick: 7* R3 unduped silk, 4* spidey 2099 relic
Revives: 0
Silk completely counters smorgasbord so this one was very easy. In terms of other champs, bring passive heal block or a champ that can inflict 10 debuffs in 30 seconds. Platinumpool will purify all debuffs on him so watch out for that. Not a bad fight with the right counters.
Fight: Dragon man
My pick: 6* R4 sig 100 ascended kitty, no relic
Revives: 0
This one purely depends on the AI's willingness to throw specials. Do not parry unless you remove the shield with poison or incinerate, and you'll be fine. Ate a sp3 during this fight so it was close but I was able to get the solo.
Fight: Gwenmaster
My pick: 6* R5 sig 200 ascended herc, 5* ms marvel relic
Revives: 0
Gwenmaster has all of her link nodes from 7.2.6 active. This means she'll go unblockable for most of the fight but you do ridiculous damage to compensate. Intercept to stall her destruction timer and remember how to disable each of her plot armors. Not too bad if you remember her abilities, read her description to try and remind yourself if you don't.
And that's it for the first path! Overall it is not a bad time at all provided your roster is well developed, and it can be done quite cheaply even on legendary difficulty.
Final tips
1. USE A SPREADSHEET. This will help keep you organized in terms of what champs you still have available, and it can be invaluable to your run. Set your gwenmaster and kang counters first, then fill out the most niche bosses based on your roster, before assigning the rest of your champs.
2. I already ran the second path, however this post is already way too long so I'll probably make a separate one for that at some point. That post will also include the full cost breakdown as well as the rewards, so I'll try and get it out as soon as possible.
3. As evidenced, most of the fights really aren't too bad as long as you plan for them. This isn't anything we haven't seen before, and even with the tune ups the attack and health values really aren't too terrible.
4. Boosts help, but aren't needed for something like this. I boosted hard for path 1, but then ended up doing path 2 completely unboosted and still made it out fine.
Thanks for reading (if you somehow made it this far), and I hope this was helpful!
