Pestilence Saga – Heroic & Hard
Introduction
I will not explain how to clear missions on the Hard difficulty. You will have all the videos though so you can know what to do if there are any problems.
For Heroic Difficulty I will briefly explain every Node. Keep in mind that everything is cleared with Darkhold whose strength was between 600k and 700k. There is no point in showing people how to do things with teams they can’t afford. That is why I tried to clear everything with my f2p account.
Pestilence Saga Hard
For Pestilence Saga Hard you will need all members of Darkhold on Gear Tier 13 and you are good to go. Missions are not hard, and they don’t need any further explanation. If you have questions just put your comments under the video on YouTube and we will answer.
- Watch Hard 1-1 guide
- Watch Hard 1-2 guide
- Watch Hard 1-3 guide
- Watch Hard 1-4 guide
- Watch Hard 1-5 guide
Pestilence Saga Heroic
Missions on Heroic difficulty require earning 3 stars on all Hard missions and that all members of your team have Gear Tier 15. Unlike Hard, Heroic difficulty can be extremely hard for teams of average power (like most f2p teams are) so there can’t be any mistakes during entire fights. Let’s start.
Heroic 1-1
This is the easiest mission on Heroic difficulty, but that doesn’t mean that your job will be easy.
In the first wave, you should prevent Phyla-Vell from clearing debuffs by killing her fast. After that, you have several options. Whatever you do, don’t allow Dazzler to use her ultimate – it will hurt, and it will remove a lot of debuffs you’ve placed.
In the second wave, the main job is to prevent Cloak from using ultimate. If you did everything right your MLF will have her ultimate ready just when Cloak spawns which should buy you enough time to kill him before he can react. In the process, you should not waste time trying to kill Web -Warriors because they dodge a lot. As long as Gwen has Offense Down, or she is stunned they are harmless.
When the third wave spawns, you should have everything under control. WW should be near death, and you can freely focus on Infinity Watch and BB. Black Bolt is no longer dangerous as he was before, but he can steal and punish you when you are near death. The safest way is to have him under Offense Down or Stun all the time.
Heroic 1-2
Young Avengers is Darkhold’s favorite enemy. Heroic 1-2 is all about YA so you should not have many problems if you know the trick.
The trick is that Agatha should use her stun on Squirrel Girl instead of her ultimate. MLF’s ultimate will be enough to incapacitate the rest of the first wave so you will not be in trouble if enemies don’t receive offense down from Agatha immediately. Slowly you will clear them all.
In Heroic 1-2 enemies spawn faster. You should not have any problems as long as you focus on the main damage threats and ignore those who are not threats. In this case, you should ignore Phoenix and completely focus on Magik. It is of utmost importance that Magik is dead before Cyclops and Storm spawn and before Phoenix summons Dark Phoenix.
If you manage to do that you will not have problems. The only thing you should worry about is that Mercenary Lieutenant doesn’t use his buffs – killing him will be easy so I advise you do that immediately.
As you can see, I ignored Phoenix and Adam Warlock completely until the end – they didn’t pose a threat to me, and I dealt with them easily with Skirmisher and CC.
Heroic 1-3
Third Node on Heroic Difficulty could be surprisingly hard if you don’t care so you must be vigilant during the entire fight. At the start, you need to control Doctor Voodoo. You need to Stun him before he plays and kill him before he can act.
The problem is that in the meantime you must focus on Ghost Rider to avoid the unnecessary surprise he can deliver. Once you get rid of those two you must bring three of the remaining four characters to near-death status. That will last but it is of utmost importance that before spawning of the second wave Scarlet Witch and Longshot are near death.
When the second wave spawns you will have two potential problems ahead. The first one is that Rescue can remove all debuffs if she is not controlled and killed fast. The second problem is that Morbius can cause insane damage and literally one-shot any of your characters.
Ideally your Scarlet Witch spreads Stun to Morbius but since you cannot wait for that to happen you must stun Rescue and kill her before Ability Block is removed on Morbius. In the video, this looks easy but trust me it is really tricky to do everything right.
Once you kill Rescue and Morbius the rest can be put on auto-combat.
Heroic 1-4
The fourth node will grant you the hardest experience so far, but if you know what to do it will not be impossible.
When the battle starts you will be forced to use MLF’s ultimate on Stryfe. That means that Silver Samurai will not get Disrupted. With your Skirmishers make sure to remove enemy buffs – place vulnerability on everyone in order to remove possible Offense Ups. The plan is to keep Silver Samurai stunned while you are killing Lady Deathstrike and Madelyne Pryor.
Sabres will not pose any threat but look to kill Wolverine before he gets his third turn. You will need to carefully divide your focus and your control. Ideally, Silver Samurai dies before he plays at all. As you can see in the video that is doable.
Once Jubile spawns you will have to focus on her while prolonging existing effects on others. Obviously when the second Stryfe spawns he must be Disrupted immediately.
If you kill Jubilee before the third wave and spawning of Bishop and Baron Zemo everything is good. When those two characters spawn, you will be in a dilemma. The best course of action is to remove Immunity from Zemo with MLF and her Skirmisher Class.
Everyone suggests that MLF should have Striker but me and now you see the reason why. Baron Zemo if not under Offense Down can cause some serious damage in continuity but nevertheless you must kill Bishop first and Zemo after.
If you kill those two before the second Madelyne Pryor and Beast spawn, you have a chance for success. The key to easygoing is to save MLF-s ultimate while killing Zemo and Bishop. If you do that and save Agatha’s ultimate as well the last wave will be easy for you. Madelyne Pryor will be under Ability Block, and you will kill her regardless of Beast who will be annoying with his buffs, cleanses, and healing.
It is hard to prevent both Beast and Madelyne Pryor from using their abilities. In the video, you can see what I did. The focus should be on Madelyne Pryor and then on the Beast.
Once you kill those two the only thing that can ruin your victory is that Wolverine one-shots some of your members with his ultimate. However, if he was under Slow and Disrupt all the time, that won’t happen.
It is the time to press auto-combat and prepare for the final Boss in Heroic 1-5!
Heroic 1-5
Beating 1-5 is extremely hard and RNG-dependent. If you are trying it yourself, I will give you just one hint – If Rogue hit anyone at the start but Wong or Strange [Heartless], quit the battle and start over. If all members of the team are not on level 90 at least, don’t start.
Trust me it is doable with DH who is not improved by spending, and I will show you how!”
Important notice is that you do not need to chase 3 stars in your first victory. You need to complete a mission – even if just one character from your team is alive – it will give you rewards. After that, when you upgrade your MLF, you will go for a 3-star shoot. It will be much easier.
As I said before, to clear this mission and get much-needed awakened abilities for Morgan Le Fay, you must wait for Rogue to target Wong or Strange [Heartless]. DH over 850k can later survive multiple AOE’s that will follow but teams with lesser strength will not have that possibility.
I’ve tried repeatedly, but I was always hit or two behind Scarlet’s special that will buy you time and lead you to victory.
From patch 6.4 there is no more glitch in the game when you can still target an enemy you are already focusing on after taunt. They fixed a bug, and from now you will be forced to attack a taunting enemy (Rogue in this case).
Ability rotation on start is fixed. You must use the ultimate with Agatha in the first turn. You must save Strange’s special for the time he is not forced to target Rogue. You must prolong all effects immediately with Scarlet Witch.
You must save Wong ultimate for later or he will be burned. You must place Stun on Gambit as soon as possible. And you must kill Shang Chi first. This is not debatable, and it is immediately obvious that even with the strongest possible Darkhold team, you must play again if Rogue targets MLF, Agatha, or Scarlet Witch.
When you survive through the first wave and the second wave spawns do not rush things. Your goal is to not let Sersi play. You will have plenty of options at your disposal, just think and act rationally. Darkhold’s overall speed increases with every new turn so you will not be forced to use your cooldowns immediately.
In the video, you can see how I dealt with Sersi and the rest of the second wave. While controlling Sersi try to bring other enemies as low as possible – you want them to be near death when the last wave spawns.
If you listened to me and equipped all characters but Wong with the Skirmisher ISO-8 class, you won’t have any problems with the last wave. With Skirmisher remove Offense Up from Dazzler and make sure that Morgan’s ultimate is placed so it can affect both S.H.I.E.L.D. Security. You should not have problems keeping Dazzler and Colleen under control and finishing the mission.
Victory is in your grasp – do not hesitate to claim it!