WAR Saga
Introduction
Ok, it is time for War Saga and Red Hulk’s awakened abilities!
My first impression after clearing War Saga on Heroic difficulty is that content is easier than it should be. Maybe I’m old-fashioned but I need the challenge to be happy and satisfied after getting rewards. Getting rewards without a true effort is ok, but it will never raise the level of dopamine in your brain high enough to create a smile on your face. Especially when you are getting ridiculously free rewards continuously in the past few months.
I admit that I am a boomer and that I usually don’t immediately understand the needs and desires of younger generations, but I had to share my first immediate feelings with you before starting to explain what you need to do…
Eventually, it proved that I was right about feeling awkward – Scopely made a mistake and released War Saga with enemies from the Famine Saga. That crucially lowered the expected difficulty and allowed everyone who started War Saga in the first few hours after release to get their rewards on Auto-Combat without any fear of losing.
By the time we shared our initial content, Scopely realized and fixed their mistake. The damage was already done since many players already claimed everything needed. Fortunately, War Saga as it should be from the start is doable for everyone with requirements met.
For clearing the initial War Saga Heroic, we’ve used Gamma with minimum requirements – all Gamma characters are T15 with average RS, including Red Hulk who is on just 3 RS for this occasion. Clearing all Nodes with this team was not really hard even when they fixed enemies.
On our channel, you will find videos for Hard difficulty as well, but I will not explain Hard Nodes separately for obvious reasons. As for Apocalypse difficulty, we will provide content when it is possible to assemble full T17 Horseman teams without impossible spending and when we realize that Apocalypse Difficulty content is needed by most of the community.
When you successfully clear the content, you will unlock Red Hulk’s awakened abilities:
PAVEMENT PUMMEL – Special Level 8
- If Apocalypse is an ally, or with 3 or more HORSEMAN allies, clear Revive Once on adjacent targets
- Fill Speed Bar for 1 random, adjacent HORSEMAN ally by 10%
- Fill Speed Bar for 1 random Apocalypse ally by 15%
SEEING RED – Passive Level 6
- At the end of this character’s turn, if Apocalypse is an ally, gain +1 Charged, up to a maximum of 5
- Apocalypse and all HORSEMAN allies gain +60% Focus.
At this moment those awakened abilities will have an immediate impact on the current Arena Meta, even Apocalypse is not yet available. Red Hulk’s special will force many players to start using 4 Horsemen + Dormammu in the Arena due to the fact that Red Hulk can clear Revive once to up to 3 characters simultaneously.
We already showed that this Arena team is the most optimal choice at the moment (in both actual power and progression justification) but with this upgrade, they will become troublesome opponents even in Arena Defense.
Passive ability improvement will be truly understood only with Apocalypse in a team but a 60% increase in Focus will allow you to shuffle ISO-8 classes for your Arena team even now. Simply you will not need any Skirmishers in your Arena team – just give them Raider classes and Striker classes and you will be good to go.
Now, let’s talk about each node on Heroic Difficulty!
Node 1
Brawn – Skirmisher
Abomination – Skirmisher
She-Hulk – Striker
Red Hulk – Striker
Hulk – Healer
The First Node should not be hard even with the lowest strength requirements. Your initial goal is to prevent Emma from using her ultimate (Stun her after you clear Taunt on Stryfe) and to avoid your buffs being flipped by Doctor Strange. Gamma has a lot of sustenance so that should not be a problem.
When Spider-Man 2009 spawns you should focus on him immediately and kill him before he can play. At this point, Red Hulk’s ultimate should be ready after which everything will go easy.
Stay vigilant though, because 2 Madelyne Pryors and Sersi are capable of great bursts, but if you carefully manage your controlling abilities, you won’t have problems with them. Stunning Sersi would be perfect!
Also, don’t allow the second Doctor Strange to flip your buffs and prolong Phyla-Vel’s turn with She-Hulk’s special.
Honestly, this Node is not hard but if you have problems with keeping everyone alive make sure that Hulk is equipped with Healer ISO-8 class.
Node 2
Brawn – Skirmisher
Abomination – Skirmisher
She-Hulk – Striker
Red Hulk – Striker
Hulk – Healer
In the second Node, the greatest initial threat is definitely Spider Weaver. You must stun her before she can play, that is the only option. After you kill her, your main problem will be Wong who can’t be killed fast and who will probably succeed in placing Taunt on himself. If you can’t kill him before he can act do not focus on him at all. Also, be aware of Iceman – he is often underestimated but his constant follow-ups and mass slow can be really annoying and dangerous.
At this point, you will be forced to kill Wong as soon as possible. Abomination’s special will help you, but you should try to prolong using it as long as possible.
After killing Wong, your next targets should be Strange [Heartless] and Iceman. Silver Surfer and Moondragon will spawn. Ignore Silver Surfer but prevent Moondragon from using her special.
In the third wave, you will face Ghost Spider, Scarlet Spider, Phyla-Vell, and Jubilee. It would be good to have Stun for Ghost Spider because she will be most likely accompanied by other Web Warriors at that moment (they have a great Dodge chance and they have the highest chance to survive your AOEs, especially since they shouldn’t be your main focus previously).
If you used Red Hulk’s ultimate previously, the third wave will not have Trauma meaning that Phyla-Vell will be capable of clearing your debuffs from them. Nonetheless, Jubilee is a higher threat, and you should try to prevent her from playing if you have any other CC ability after stunning Ghost Spider.
Adam Warlock and Strange [Heartless] will spawn at the end. That would be a good time for using Bran’s special if you have it. Also, be sure to use Red Hulk’s special to target Adam Warlock – it will prevent his revival and make things easier for you.
With proper ability management and patience, you will easily clear Node 2 as well, regardless of your Gamma strength.
Like in the first mission, if you have problems with staying alive, Healer ISO-8 Class on Hulk is your secret weapon – his damage will be drastically reduced (if he is not Striker) but you will have an insane amount of regenerations to protect you.
Node 3
Brawn – Skirmisher
Abomination – Skirmisher
She-Hulk – Striker
Red Hulk – Striker
Hulk – Healer
In the third Node, things start to be complicated. You will face a true challenge if your goal is to achieve 3 stars. If not, you can easily clear it with casualties.
The position of Mister Negative add will decide who will be affected by Red Hulk’s special at the start. Personally, I would prefer it more if I could delay the turns of Hulkbuster and Maria Hill instead of SHIELD Trooper and Mister Negative, but I was forced to do the opposite.
Preventing Hulkbuster from using his ultimate on start should be your first and main priority. It would be ideal that you can control Mister Negative as well, but you will have to save some CC abilities for later. It is important that you start the fight with Brawn ultimate – that will negate Mister Negative, Deathlok, and Taskmaster openings.
There will be a lot of ads and you will be hit by at least 2 AOEs which will build up Red Hulk’s ultimate really fast. Do not use it immediately! Slowly kill enemies one by one. It would be ideal that you kill Maria Hill before she can use her heal, but keep in mind that preventing Hulkbuster ultimate is more important than killing Mari Hill.
After killing 3 enemies in the first wave (aside from Maria Hill’s ads), Viv Vision, Iron Man, Vision, Charon Carter, and Shang Chi will spawn. Now you know why killing Hulkbuster is more important than killing Maria Hill. Choosing the best course of action at this moment will be tricky and you will have to be really careful.
Do not panic and try to save Red Hulk’s ultimate for a little bit longer, while focusing your DPS on Shang Chi and Viv Vision. Viv Vision will enter stealth if she drops under 50%, so if you don’t kill her expect that she will cleanse all debuffs and place Blind on some of your team members.
At this point, the best course of action is to be patient and deliberately allow Shang Chi to use his ultimate. You will be protected by multiple Deathprrofs and he will be under Offense Down, so he will not kill anyone in your team. It may seem strange since I allowed Shang Chi to target Hulk who had Taunt and more than 5 buffs on himself but that was a better solution than allowing Sharon Carter to place Stun on the target of her choosing (Red Hulk or She-Hulk for example).
Everything you did until now was preparation for the first wave and spawning of Kestrel Hulkbuster and Sam Wilson. Maria Hill has used her ultimate, Viv Vision is dead, and you can now freely use Amobination’s special ability without fear that debuffs will be cleared.
Among other things, that will place Defense Down on Kestrel and open her for bonus damage. Killing Kestrel before she can act is really important because she one-shot an injured member of the team with her ultimate. If you saved Red Hulk’s ultimate for this moment you will have nothing to worry about.
Kestrel’s initial buffs are an ideal target for Brawn’s special ability if you managed to save it when she spawns. That would make things even easier. In any way, Abomination’s special and Red Hulk’s ultimate together will annihilate everyone on the other side and you will not have problems as you would have otherwise.
In perfect conditions, the last wave of enemies will spawn when everyone else is dead. Having full Gamma against only 3 opponents (no matter who they are) is already a win and you can turn on Auto-Combat at that point while targeting the second Sharon Carter.
Node 4
650k gamma ideal situation VIDEO HERE
650k gamma worst scenario VIDEO HERE
Brawn – Skirmisher
Abomination – Skirmisher
She-Hulk – Striker
Red Hulk – Striker
Hulk – Healer
I must admit that even with 800k Gamma and T17 Red Hulk, I had to repeat Mission 4 a few times to keep everyone alive.
It seems that you will depend on RNG because of Spider Weaver/Spider-Man 2099 duo – You will be forced to play after Spider Weaver because you will be slowed and there is nothing you can do about it.
As you can see in the Video, the best course of action is that Waver targets Red Hulk at the start – he has Immunity and will be unaffected by her Stun. After many tries and testing, we concluded that Spider-Weaver targets the middle spot most often. We did it with She-hulk in the middle and we recorded it. Having Trauma and Stun on She-Hulk makes things almost impossible, but it is doable even then and even with the lowest Strength requirements.
Nonetheless, there is a simple solution, knowing all this. Put Red Hulk in the middle and since Weaver will most likely attack him (not always), you will simply avoid being bothered by initial Stun and Trauma – that means that you can freely use Brawn’s ultimate at the start if needed, without fear that a member with Trauma will not be healed.
Anyway, from this point forward you will have to carefully count Spider Weaver’s charges. Keep in mind that in her second turn, she will get another Charge after which she will have a basic attack and then ultimate again. So, in short, you should kill her before her second turn while your focus is on Gambit who obviously has to die asap.
This would not be a problem if there is no Bishop but since he is there you must clear his Taunt somehow. To that his HP must be under 80% before he plays. Usually, that would not be a problem but here you will have 3 misses and you will have to Stun Gambit first and prevent him from causing fatal damage.
Fortunately, Bishop will be the only member of the enemy team with a buff (Defense Up) and Abomination will passively flip that buff in Defense Down. However, that will not be enough to make sure that his HP is under 80% before his turn. The best course of action is to use Brawn’s special previously even though it will miss – you will get Deathproof and Offense Up on every team member, nonetheless.
Do not make mistake at this point by using Hulk’s ultimate – use his special and Bishop will attack him just be counterattacked and injured high enough so he can trigger Taunt again. You can use Brown’s ultimate as well if needed to negate Gambit’s initial damage and get Immunity. Honestly whatever you do you will not make a mistake (someone may think that Brawn’s special is better left when Rogue spawns and manages to use her special but we will try to prevent that from happening).
If everything went smoothly, you will be able to target Spider Weaver with Red Hulk’s special and prolong her turn for long enough to make her harmless. Depending on your Red Hulk’s strength that attack should kill Gambit. This is really important since he will be in stealth if you failed to Stun him before. Gambit’s continuous damage is serious, and it is mandatory that he is disposed of as fast as possible.
When you kill 3 characters from the first wave, Beast, Dazzler, and Kitty Pride will spawn. DO NOT use Red Hulk’s ultimate yet and continue disposing of survived characters from the first wave. As soon as you kill 2 of them (Spider Weaver and Bishop preferably), Fantomex and Rogue will spawn. Now the real fun begins.
If you haven’t used Brawn’s ultimate, it will be ready so you should not worry about the HP of your team. Also, you will have Immunity which will negate Dazzler’s Ability Block. If you’ve used it previously you can exploit available Evades and transfer it to allies, or you can save it if Rogue manages to use her special. At this point focus fully on Rogue – if she uses her special you will be in a tough situation. The problem is Dazzler. Even though she is no threat to you, she will flip all negative effects on Rogue and Fantomex and make things harder.
After killing Rogue, you should not have any problems whatsoever. Control Beast (if he is still alive) and Spider-man 2099 and don’t underestimate Iceman because he will constantly harass you until you kill him.
Good luck!
Node 5
Brawn – Skirmisher
Abomination – Skirmisher
She-Hulk – Striker
Red Hulk – Striker
Hulk – Healer
In the last node, there is no real strategy. The last Node is a final test of your Gamma sustenance. You will fight against a ridiculous number of Bleeds and other debuffs, Offense Down will be your main enemy in the successful clearing because it drastically reduces your chances of flipping Dormammu’s Buffs.
You must give Healer ISO-8 to your Hulk. That is mandatory. Also, it would be best that you save Brawn’s special to be used after Dormammu activates his ultimate.
Other than that, everything is pretty straightforward. Stun on Cloak was mandatory for me (as always – I hate this character when he is against me) but everything else will be forced to be done. Keep in mind that Ikaris can’t flip your buffs because Sersi is not with him.
Damage Dormammu at every given opportunity and try that Red Hulk’s special always hit him. Other than that, I can’t help you much. It will be your Gamma against everything, but the good thing is that your Gamma will prevail 🙂
Conclusion
Obviously, Developers made another colossal mistake by putting opponents from Famine Saga into War Saga which made things a lot easier than they should be. The problem was fixed after a few hours (the damage is already done and everyone who played cleared the War Saga with minimum effort) but a bitter taste remained.
Fortunately, War Saga Heroic is not that hard, so everyone will be able to clear it sooner or later. Hopefully, this will be forgotten soon, and everything will be back to normal, but the number of fatal errors we experienced recently is simply not normal.
I will not comment any further because I really love this game and I have mixed feelings (mostly bad) about all the negligence we have seen in the past 2 months. That is why I decided to stay positive and wait for better days. After all, no one deliberately kills a golden goose.