Pestilence Scourge
Intro
Pestilence Scourge and all the other Scourges are now on a repeating schedule where they will be live every two weeks and will run for 5 days. This stability provides everyone with a good opportunity to plan ahead and get the rewards they aim for.
The best addition is the new Traits for the nodes 5/10 – Underworld/ Hive-Mind. This will help improve the new player experience by a mile since the other teams that are required here are outdated, while Underworld is still an older team it is still relevant in War. Nonetheless, our recommendation would be to focus on the Hive-Mind team if you’re just starting the Scourge.
Alongside the new schedule, there is also a new reward system. There are no longer any leaderboards where you can get bonus shards, now everything is centered around Milestones.
Here’s how the Milestones are separated in terms of Shards and Star Ranks:
- Milestone 3 (500,000 Points) = 3-Star Unlock
- Milestone 4 (600,000 Pts) = 1 Red Star unlock
- Milestone 5 (700,000 Pts) = 4-Star upgrade
- Milestone 6 (800,000 Pts) = 2 Red Stars upgrade
- Milestone 7 (900,000 Pts) = 5-Star upgrade
- Milestone 8 (950,000 Pts) = 3 Red Stars upgrade
- Milestone 9 (1,050,000 Pts) = 6-Star upgrade
- Milestone 10 (1,150,000 Pts) = 4 Red Star upgrade
- Milestone 12 (1,350,000 Pts) = 7-Star upgrade
Rewards from the Milestones also include Purple Gear Raid Orbs (300 Orbs total), Orange Gear Raid Orbs (600 Orbs Total), Teal Gear Raid Orbs (175 Orbs total), and Training Orbs (30 Orbs total).
An unlock can be accomplished by completing a run on Difficulty 4 with nearly all scourges active. Difficulty 5 with all scourges will get you the 4-star upgrade. Difficulty 6 with all pacts propels you to a 6-star unlock. And difficulty 7 with most of the pacts is enough to complete all the Milestones.
The Difficulty of Scourges can go above Difficulty 7 up to Diff 10, and that can be used to your advantage if you intend to complete all the milestones but don’t want to waste resources on upgrading the teams that are required for nodes 5 and 10, in this case, Dark Hunter and/or Web Warrior teams. All you need to do, if you have a strong roster, is to play the first 4 nodes on Difficulty 8 with most of the pacts or Difficulty 9 with a select few. In both cases, each node will award you around 300-350K Points, and from 4 nodes you can get the required 1,350,000 Points to complete the Milestone. This will help you avoid all the trouble of upgrading the old and in some cases obsolete characters, but it will only work if you have powerful characters(Gear Tier 17-18, Level 90-95) that fit the requirements of the first 4 nodes.
Below you can find the requirements for notes and the breakdown of each scourge, which are best to use or avoid, and how to handle each node.
Requirements
Difficulty 5-10:
- Node 1-2 — Hero
- Node 3-4 — Global
- Node 5/10 — Dark Hunters/ Web Warriors/ Underworld/ Hive-Mind
- Node 6-7 — Villain
- Node 8-9 — Cosmic
Difficulty 4 features the same requirements for each node as above, except nodes 5/10 require City characters. Difficulties 3 and below have these requirements only on a select few nodes.
Scourges
Active Scourges:
- Quality Minions – Summoned enemies gain +20% Max Health (1 point)
- Not so fast… – When a player gains Ability energy, apply Slow to them (3 points)
- Whole Latte Power – Enemies generate 1 Additional Ability Energy each time they generate Ability Energy (5 points)
- Devil’s Bargain II – When A Player Character Gains Ability Energy, They Gain Defense Down (7 points)
- Gloating – When Any Player Character Dies, Enemies Gain 2 Ability Energy (7 points)
- Weakened – Player Character Healing Is Reduced By 20% (10 points)
- Unkillable – When an Enemy Drops Below 50% Health, They Gain Deathproof (10 points)
- Poisoned Energy II – When A Player Character Gains Ability Energy, Apply Defense Down For +1 Turn er Ability Energy Gained (12 points)
- Power Fatigue I – Player Character Special Abilities Cost 1 More Ability Energy (17 points)
- Too Clever – When A Player Character Uses Their Special, They Gain the Ability Block (20 points)
Scourges that can be additionally activated to boost the score without essential impact on the battle mechanics:
- Experimental Serum I – Enemies Gain +10% Max Health (1 point)
- Experimental Serum II – Enemies Gain +20% Max Health (5 points)
- Pyrrhic Victory – When A Player Character Blocks, Apply Stun to Them (12 points)
- Blinded by Power – When A Player Character Uses Their Ultimate, They Gain Blind (this is annoying, but it is not lethal if you are careful with your skill rotations – it changes nothing on Nodes 5 and 10) (15 points)
- Experimental Serum III – Enemies Gain 30% Max Health (15 points)
- The End is Near – When A Player Character’s Health Drops Below 50% of Max Health, Apply Trauma to Them (15 points)
- Power Fatigue II – Player Character Ultimate Abilities Cost 1 More Ability Energy (be careful with this, especially on nodes 5 and 10 – you will need almost all CDs ready for node 10) (20 points)
Scourges that make things very hard and change the course of battles:
- Fool me Twice – When an enemy takes Damage, they gain Speed-Up for +2 Turns (10 points)
- Strong Opener – On Spawn, Enemies Gain Immunity (10 points)
- Bleeder I – When A Player Character Takes Damage, They Gain Bleed (12 points)
- Dark Rally – When A Player Character Uses Their Ultimate Ability, All Enemies Gain 1 Ability Energy (17 points)
- Vile Resurgence – On an Enemy’s Turn, They Gain Offense Up (23 points)
- No Help Coming – On Turn, apply 2 Heal blocks to player Characters (Web Warriors will not survive with this Scourge regardless of their power)
Videos that we will provide show battles with all Scourges from the list of “Active Scourges”. That is enough to claim all existing rewards. This is the expected number of points:
Nodes
These are the teams that we originally used, before you aim to get the highest score we recommend that you do a quick run on a lower difficulty to get the unlock and after that, you can upgrade Morgan and use her to get a higher score:
- Node 1 – Spider Weaver, Red Hulk, Rogue, Spider-Man (2099), Gambit
- Node 2 – Red Hulk, Ikaris, Rogue, Sersi, Kestrel
- Node 3 – Wong, Rogue, Red Hulk, Morgan Le Fay, Agatha Harkness
- Node 4 – Wong, Rogue, Red Hulk, Morgan Le Fay, Agatha Harkness
- Node 5 – Ghost-Spider, Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man, Spider-Man [Miles], Spider-Punk
- Node 6 – Omega Red, Doctor Doom, Dormammu/Strange [Heartless], Morgan Le Fay, Agatha Harkness
- Node 7 – Omega Red, Doctor Doom, Dormammu/Strange [Heartless], Morgan Le Fay, Agatha Harkness
- Node 8 – Ikaris, Deathpoll, Dormammu/Adam Warlock, Strange [Heartless], Sersi
- Node 9 – Ikaris, Deathpoll, Dormammu/Adam Warlock, Strange [Heartless], Sersi
- Node 10 – Ghost-Spider, Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man, Spider-Man [Miles], Spider-Punk
Nowadays there are a lot more great characters that can be used here, so here are some alternatives:
- Nodes 1/2 – Nova, Vahl, Nightcrawler, QuicksilverMs. Marvel (Hard Light), Photon, etc…
- Nodes 3/4 – Apocalypse, Nightcrawler, Quicksilver, Nemesis, Gambit, Ironheart (MK II)
- Nodes 6/7 – Apocalypse, Doctor Octopus, Mister Negative, Hela, Kang, Super Skrull, Green Goblin (Classic), Vulture, Carnage, Venom
- Nodes 8/9 – Kang, Vahl, Super Skrull, Nova, Beta Ray Bill, Photon, Thor (Infinity War), Void Knight
Node 1
First Hero Node will be really easy if you bring the Tangled-Web duo alongside Red Hulk and Rogue with you. You just need to neutralize Silver Samurai and eliminate Phyla-Vell before she can cleanse debuffs from her allies.
You should not have any difficulties but it will be important to save your Red Hulk’s Ultimate for Node 2.
Node 2
The second Hero Node will be easy as long as you can open the battle with Red Hulk’s Ultimate and control enemy debuffers and damage dealers in the first wave.
You will be forced to use Eternals here to preserve Horseman HP for Nodes 3 and 4. It will be a lot easier for you, but you need to be careful regarding their Cooldowns – Sersi and Ikaris must have their abilities ready for Node 8!
Node 3
In Node 3 your first task will be to neutralize Shang Chi. It would also be good to place Disrupt on Ms. Marvel with MLFs ultimate which will prevent Ms. Marvel from getting Taunt.
With Agatha and Wong alongside Horsemen, there will be no need to use Red Hulk’s Ultimate here. The same goes for Rogue’s Special and Ultimate.
In short, you will have everything under control with this setup even without using all of their abilities.
Node 4
If you saved Rogue’s and Red Hulk’s abilities in Node 3, Node 4 will be a walk in the park. Both Rogue and Red Hulk will be used here for the last time, so you can use all they offer freely.
At the start, make sure that Colossus and Juggernaut can’t Taunt. When the second wave Spawns, you will have to neutralize Rescue while preventing Iron Man and War Machine from doing any harm.
However, keep in mind that both Agatha and MLF will be used on Nodes 6 and 7, so try to build their Ability Energy to be ready for what comes next.
Node 5
For Node 5 several things have to be done:
- Spider-Man [Miles] Ultimate must be at maximum level (7)
- Disrupt must be placed on Dagger and Kitty Pryde or at least one of them
- Spider-Man must be strong enough so his special is not resisted (give him Skirmisher if you must). It also must affect all targets with Slow at least.
- Eliminate Bishop and Dagger as fast as possible, after which you should focus on T’Challa (Kitty should perish from AOE if you are lucky)
- Spider-Man must have his Ultimate ready when Cloak Spawns and he can’t miss (this is a tricky one but even if he misses you can control the battle if you have enough Evades on your characters)
- After beating Cloak, prolong the battle, because you will need all CDs ready or almost ready (1 Ability Energy short) for Node 10
There is no easy way to clear this mission and be prepared for mission 10, so accept the fact that you will have to do it again and again.
Node 6
Mission 6 will be easy with Dormammu, MLF, Agatha, Omega Red, and Doctor Doom. If you don’t have Dormammu, you can replace him with numerous other characters such as Strange [Heartless] for example.
The only thing you need to do is to prevent Mister Sinister from cloning some of your characters and to preserve Dormammu’s, DDs, and ORs ultimate for Node 7. It shouldn’t be hard as long as you control Black Bolt preventing him from causing you any harm.
Node 7
If you preserved DDs and Omega Red’s ultimate this Node will also be easy for you. Agatha and MLF will not be used afterward so you will not have to worry about their cooldowns. Agatha’s Drain and DD’s ultimate will make sure that everyone remains alive.
Silver Surfer and Deathpool together are not empty threats so you should be careful against them. It would be best to preserve Dormammu’s Ultimate for Node 8. As you can see, we only used Dormammus Basic so everything would be the same even without him.
Node 8
On Node 8 your main task will be to prevent Omega Red from becoming a nuisance. If you preserved Sersi’s Special from Node 2, this will not be an issue. If you didn’t, make sure that Omega Red is down before he can use his ultimate.
When the second wave spawns, Lady Deathstrike will be your greatest threat. Make sure that she is eliminated fast before she can swarm you with Bleeds. At the same time, you must destroy Hela before she moves.
As you can see all of this is doable without Dormammu and his abilities. But having him makes things easier. Anyway, if you have him, save his Ultimate for Node 9.
There is one important thing though, Sersi and Ikaris MUST have their cooldowns ready for Node 9!
Node 9
Node 9 is easy. You will see that on our video of Node 9 Heartless is almost dead (he will die instantly) and Kestrel is with half HP. Also in this Video, Dormammu will not have his ultimate ready. We decided to keep this in to showcase the power of your Eternals.
Node 9 is easy if you have Ikaris and Sersi at full Ability Energy. As you can see, they will obliterate the first wave regardless of their power (Ikaris and Sersi are both below 150k).
The tricky part is the second wave of this node but you will have an answer for that too. Ikaris special makes additional damage against targets with Deflect, so make sure that his special is ready and used against Sam, Maria, and Kingpin – that will remove all their Deflects and instantly halve their HP.
It would be good to Stun Kestrel at this point while focusing your damage against Maria Hill. If your Dormammu has his Ultimate ready at this point you will instantly finish the mission. If you don’t have Dormammu, just follow the moves of Eternals from the video – it is really easy if you know the weaknesses of your enemies.
Node 10
Node 10 is really hard, and it would be best to have strong Dark Hunters to soften the node before attacking with WW. However, it can be done even without them if you are lucky and follow the next instructions. Here is what you have to do:
- Do not play if Thanos Taunts you at the start – just start over
- Spider-Man must avoid being debuffed with Offense Down. He must have a clear Offense Up before using his special. With his special, he must target Colossus first in order to affect all enemies.
- Do not use Gwen’s special until she is without Offense Down – use her basic instead to remove buffs from Ebony Maw (she will need Skirmisher obviously).
- Do not use Spider-Man [Miles] ultimate until he is without Offense Down – even without it a really small chance for him to place Disrupt on Colossus (which is mandatory if you fail to place Ability Block on him with Gwen). He also needs Skirmisher and should be focused on Ebony Maw if he is under Offense Down.
- Prevent Cyclops from triggering his second turn and his ultimate – use Slow and Mile’s special if needed.
- Kill Colossus before the second wave or at least kill him before Phoenix can play.
- Do not let Storm use her special and kill her right after Ebony Maw, Cyclops, and Colossus
- Use Spider-Man Stun on Phoenix before she can use her special
- Kill Magik before Phoenix spawns Dark Phoenix
- Try to eliminate Psylocke before Dark Phoenix spawns
- In perfect conditions when Dark Phoenix spawns everyone else but Corvus Glaive will be dead.
To reach perfect conditions you will lose a lot of nerve and time, but there is no easy way of doing it. As you can see it can be done with only Web Warriors. I have even done it several times while trying to provide you with the best and most helpful content.
Hopefully, this will help you in the end 🙂